


Stars and Ciphers

by NewMoonChild



Series: Star-crossed [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill Cipher is a Jerk, Bookworm Dipper, But really ends up liking it, Dipper doesn't like going outside at first, Faeries - Freeform, Grief/Mourning, Human Bill Cipher, Multi, OC hates Bill, Older Dipper Pines, Older Mabel Pines, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Bill Cipher, Seer Dipper Pines, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2018-06-10 15:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 29,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6962206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewMoonChild/pseuds/NewMoonChild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gravity Falls is a safe haven for the supernatural, where it can coexist with the human world- quite well, mind you. When 15-year-old Dipper and Mabel Pines move to Gravity Falls they learn this quite quickly thanks to a demon known as Hes- who also seems to want to drag Dipper away from the comfort of his books on a regular basis. And then there's the strange blonde who Dipper seems to keep running into. He seems to have taken an interest in Dipper, but what is this strange past the three boys seem to share?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. May 27- Day

Gravity Falls is a strange place. Everyone who lives there knows that. After all, you don’t normally go to school with vampires, or have a werewolf as a cashier. Now, not everyone in Gravity Falls is non-human, most of us are completely ordinary people. Like me and my sister, Mabel, who moved in with our grunkle after our parents died in a car accident. It was late May when we moved there.

We met our Grunkle Stan for the first time at our parents’ funeral. They were being buried in Gravity Falls because that was apparently where my dad had grown up. My dad had moved out after graduating high school, and my sister and I had come to the tiny town in Oregon for the first time for the funeral.

The funeral service had just finished when a grey-haired man (but no less fit and spry than a much younger man) in a suit and a red mackerel fez walked up to us. “I’m guessing you kids are Dipper and Mabel?” he asked, though it had been pretty obvious who we were. We’d both had to say something about our parents, Mabel ended up crying about a minute into her speech and had to go sit down so my aunt (mom’s side, dad didn’t have any siblings and our grandparents were dead by now) could calm her down. 

I nodded. “I’m your Grunkle Stan. You kids are gonna be living with me now. You kids have your stuff?”

We’d been told we would be moving in with our new legal guardian after the funeral, so our things were in the trunk of our aunt’s minivan. I nodded. 

“Well, let’s get your things and then we can head home. Okay?”

The drive to our Grunkle Stan’s home was quiet. It was an awkward silence, as we’d never really met- but were going to be living with the man who was supposedly family. I guessed it would be better than living with my aunt, she had four kids and was a single mother, so it was pretty hectic over there. I hated the noise, and while Mabel  _ loved  _ kids, our cousins were total brats that drove her crazy. So far I’d seen that Gravity Falls was a small town in the woods, and hoped we’d be living someplace quiet.

We drove up to some tourist-trap place that said “Mystery Hack” on the roof. Or maybe it was Mystery Shack, there appeared to be an “S” that had fallen off. “Well, here we are! Home, sweet home!” Stan announced, laughing awkwardly. He sighed, turning around to face me and Mabel. “Look, I’ve never had kids before. I don’t know anything about raising them, and it’s been ages since I was your age. I’m gonna do my best, but please try and make it easy on all of us?”

We nodded.

“Good. Now let’s get your stuff inside and let’s hope Soos and Hes are done fixing up your rooms.” He turned to look at me. “You kids are gonna be rooming with Hes, you okay with that? He’s your age, sorta.”

Mabel seemed to perk up at that. “Is he cute?” she asked.

Stan shrugged. “He’s not ugly, I know that much at least. I dunno, I’m not a teenage girl.”

He gave us a tour of the place, showing us the museum floor and gift shop- where we were expected to help out, the living room, the kitchen/dining room, the supply closet then took us upstairs to show us the bathroom and his bedroom (which we were never to go into under any circumstances) and then up to the attic. Stan pounded on the door. “Hes! Are you decent, kid?” he shouted. “My great niece and nephew are here!”

There was the sound of someone getting (falling) off something, then footsteps as they ran to the door. The door flew open to reveal a strawberry blonde who was indeed the same age as me and Mabel. He was wearing a navy long-sleeved shirt with some sort of constellation on his shirt. “Hey!” he said. He glanced at me and Mabel before looking at Stan and saying, “Soos is on the back porch if you need him to carry their stuff up.” 

“Got it. Well, I’ll leave you three alone,” he said. “I’ll be watching TV if you need anything!” Then he left, leaving us with yet another stranger. 

“Name’s Hesperon Aster,” he said. “But most people call me Hes.”

“I’m Dipper.”

Mabel seemed to find Hes attractive because she said, “My name’s Mabel, but you can call me ‘the girl of your dreams!’” she said, trying to look seductive.

Hes laughed, opening the door wider to let us in. “Whatever you say. But FYI, I’m not really into mortals.”

“What on earth?” I asked.

He sighed. “And this is why I hate explaining things to outsiders.” He looked at a clock on a nightstand next to a bunk bed in the room. “It’s 5:30. Hmm, what to show them to explain at this hour?” His face lit up. “I know! Follow me!” he said, dragging us out of the attic. We passed by Grunkle Stan, who appeared to be watching a black-and-white movie. “I’m taking them into the woods!” he called.

“Okay! Keep Mabel away from the gnomes, I hear Jeff’s looking for a queen!”

“Got it!”

“Gnomes?” I asked, completely confused. Were they just giving a nickname to a group of short people or something? But what about looking for a queen?

Hes refused to explain, just continued to drag us out of the house and into the woods. He pulled us all the way to a small river, crouching by the water to say, “Hey guys, we got some newbies!”

We could hear a cluster of small voices. “Oooh, what are they like?””Is it like the last person you brought?””Can we take them for a swim?” We looked around, trying to locate the source of the voices. 

Hes laughed. “First off, I have no idea what they’re like. I just met them.” There was a chorus of “Aww”s. “But they’re a member of the Pines family, so they’ve gotta be pretty cool. And, well, it’s warm out so I guess we can go swimming. Why don’t you guys come out and introduce yourselves?”

The water literally lifted itself into the air in three places, creating three small beings out of water. They were humanoid, and appeared female, but had a set of dragonfly-like wings on their backs. They fluttered into the air, a mist trailing behind them. “These are the local water sprites-Nina, Perri, and Aquila.”

“Hi!” they all cheered. 

“Th-they, the water, wings, but, fairies, not possible,” I stammered before passing out.

 


	2. May 27- Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper learns about Gravity Falls, and he and Mabel are introduced to some of Hes' friends

Water. Splashing. That’s what I heard as I slowly drifted into consciousness. I opened my eyes to see a canopy of pine needles high above. Where on earth was I?

I sat up, looking around. I was a little ways away from a lake. I could see Mabel splashing a teenage boy-

Hes. As soon as I recognized him, I remembered everything from the past week- the accident, moving to Gravity Falls, the faeries. I felt like I was about to pass out again, not noticing Hes had moved to stand next to me until he put his hand on my shoulder, making me tense up.

“Hey, it's okay,” Hes said.

I looked at him. He was in the lake a few seconds ago, was I really spaced out that long?

“I’m sure you're confused about what I showed you.” I nodded. “Do you want me to explain?” Another nod.

He sat down next to me. “First things first- magic is real, and all those legends of the supernatural have significantly more than a grain of truth to them. Most aren't 100%, true, but they typically have the right idea,” he said. “I thought introducing you to the water sprites first would be the best idea. Didn't know you were so firmly grounded in the human realm.”

“So, what about you? Where do you fit in? And my grunkle?”

He's sighed. “According to humans, I'm labeled as Hesperon Ortus Vesperon Aster, demon of shadows, the stars and the night sky. But in Gravity Falls I'm just Hes, the guy who guards the town. As for your uncle, he's one of the many people in this town who take advantage of the town’s connection to the supernatural to make a profit. Though he doesn't actually use anything real, oddly enough.”

“So, the whole town knows about all this?”

Hes nodded. “Kinda hard not to. I mean, you kinda have supernatural creatures walking around town just like any human. We’ve all kinda learned to coexist, mostly. There are a few hiccups sometimes, mostly when new people move here who don’t know about what it’s like here.” He stood, helping me up. “Anyways, the people in this town who are our age are gonna be throwing a party nearby in a few minutes to welcome you and your sis. We should get going.”

I nodded. “Come on, Mabel!” Hes shouted. “We’re leaving!”

Mabel was out of the water and running up to us as soon as the words left Hes’ mouth. “Let’s get going! I am ready to PAR-TAY!” she shouted. 

“Loves to enjoy herself?” Hes asked, smirking as my twin ran up ahead of us. I nodded. 

The sun was setting as we arrived in the clearing. There were at least fifty teenagers and young adults milling about, I could see a few coolers strategically placed with at least  _ some  _ non alcoholic drinks and floating orbs of light and music coming from an unseen source. 

Two women ran up to us- a girl with firy red hair and another with calmer auburn locks. They looked like they were college age. “You guys made it!” the first exclaimed. “Are these the new kids? Have you told them what this place is like?”

“Yes, of course,” Hes snorted. He gestured to the first. “Guys, this is Wendy Corduroy. She’s 100% human- or so I’ve been told, at least.”

“Totally human,” Wendy assured us. “Also on summer break from college.”

“How on earth is the way you climb trees even remotely human?!” the other girl exclaimed. “It’s like wha-bam! I’m up on the tippy top all of a sudden! Anyways, what are their names?”

“May I present to you the beautiful Mabel Pines and her brilliant twin, Dipper,” Hes said, gesturing dramatically. He chucked. “And this, kids, is Amber. She’s a fire spirit and runs the best shop for potions and magical items in town.”

Amber gave him a playful shove. “Aww, shucks. Hes is giving me a compliment! Better mark the date, cuz it’ll probably be another century before he gives me one again!”

Hes glared at her. “You say that like I don’t know how to be nice to people.”

“You do,” Wendy admitted, “It’s just rare.”

“Is not!”

Amber laughed. “Whatever, Moonflower. Don’t you have other people to introduce them to?”

“Yeah…”

“So, don’t just stand there!” Wendy said, shoving them into the crowd. “We’ll find you in a bit, we’re gonna get drinks!”

“Aaand that’s a very good reason to leave,” He said. “Let’s find Dylan, he’s gotta be around here somewhere.”

“Well if it isn’t Hesperon!” a voice called out, making Hes cringe. 

“Nope, not him, not him,” Hes muttered, trying to change directions. A shirt, baby-faced teenage boy- he was probably 13- with white hair bigger than his head walked up to them.

“Hesperon! It is so good to see you!” he exclaimed. “And these must be the newcomers!” For some odd reason, I instantly disliked the kid. Probably his sickeningly sweet, folksy attitude.

Hes sighed. “Yeah, these are the new kids- Dipper and Mabel. Guys, this is Gideon Gleeful.”

“It is so nice to meet you two!” Gideon exclaimed. “And it is nice to see such a lovely face move into town,” he said to Mabel.

“Aww, thanks,” she said, blushing.

“Well, we’d better be going,” Hes said quickly, preparing to drag them off. “Gotta introduce them to Dylan.”

“Ah. Well, have fun! I hope to see you around!”

Hes growled as they walked away. “Be careful around Gideon. He’s been a power hungry creep for most of his life. He claims to have changed, but I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him. And considering how short he is and how strong I am, that’s pretty far.”

They waded through the crowd, Hes pointing out a few people along the way. “And there’s Pacifica Northwest, daughter of the richest person in town. I’m surprised the snob’s actually here,” he commented. “Then again…” he shook his head. “Nevermind.”

“And that’s Candy and Grenda. I still think Grenda’s at least part troll, but that’s up for debate. You’d like them, Mabel.”

“I think so,” she agreed. “I’ll go say hi later!”

A dark-haired teenage male with ghostly pale skin was hanging around the trees, scowling at the glowing lights. 

“You know, staring at them won’t actually make them explode,” Hes commented, making the boy jump. His gaze softened slightly as he noticed the person who spoke.

“What do you want, Hes?”

“Uhh, to  introduce you to the newbies?” Hes said. He gestured at the teen. “This is Dylan Sinclair. He’s a vampire, but he probably won’t attack you. Emphasis on probably. Dylan, these are the twins- Dipper and Mabel Pines.”

He nodded at them. “He’s probably hungry,” Hes whispered loudly, making Dylan snarl at him.

“It’s your fault for planning it when I’m normally feeding,” he whined.

“Amber planned the party, actually,” Hes said. “I just like to bother you when you’re feeling bitchy.”

“I am not bitchy!” He glanced at me. “What’s up with the kid, though?”

I never liked crowds. At all. Period. And ever since my parents died I wanted nothing more than to curl up by a sunny window with a book and never have to talk to anyone. So I was really, really uncomfortable. And the thought that I was standing five feet away from a  _ hungry vampire that would probably drain my blood in my sleep  _ didn’t make things easier.

“Why don’t I show you the Crystal Cave, Dipper?” Hes said. “It’s really cool at night.” He looked at my sister. “Go ahead and enjoy yourself, Mabel.”

Walking in the woods at night was actually really calming for me. Regardless of the fact that I had no idea what was in there, and that probably half of the things in these woods belonged in a storybook, I felt completely at home. 

“You okay, kid?” Hes asked suddenly. 

I nodded. “Yeah, just not a fan of people.”

“Ah. Got it.” He looked at me. “I noticed there was something on your forehead earlier. Mind if I see what it is?”

“It’s really not that interesting,” I said, not wanting to have someone laugh at my birthmark.

“Aww come on, lemme see it,” Hes whined. “Please?”

I laughed at his puppy-dog eyes. “Okay, fine. Just don’t laugh, okay?”

Hes nodded. “I swear on my life.” He then stepped forward, pushing my bangs up with one hand.

“It’s stupid, isn’t it?” I muttered. 

Hes’ eyes widened. “OHMYGOD, YOUHAVETHBIGDIPPERONYOURFOREHEAD!”

“You… like it?” He seemed to like it, but I had to be sure. 

“Like it? I love it! Your birthmark is awesome!”

That was when I knew that, for the first time in my life, I was truly home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa: OHMYGODPEOPLELIKETHIS! YESSS!
> 
> Alec: Yeah. Hope we manage to keep up with people's expectations. Also, art for the chapter:
> 
> http://sunmoonilluminati.tumblr.com/image/144889513288


	3. May 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper has an odd dream and he goes with Mabel and Hes to visit Amber's shop.

Sleep that night was rather… unusual.

_ Eyes. Gold and blue eyes, watching me. _

_ Hes fighting a man with gold hair, one eye hidden from view. _

_ A triangle with stick-figure limbs battling a crescent moon with similar features. _

_ Hes holding my hands, markings on our skin glowing as a bright blue light engulfed us. _

_ Mabel kissing Dylan. Gideon punching a wall. _

_ Me curled up, clutching a strange necklace, the blonde holding me close and whispering something in my ear.  _

_ A silver moon being engulfed in purple flames. _

_ Fire. Fire all around me, crawling up my skin, trying to consume me. _

I bolted upright in bed, almost hitting my head on the ceiling, panting as I tried to catch my breath. I quickly checked my body to see if it was on fire- it wasn’t- before flopping back in bed. 

What the hell was  _ that?  _ The dream felt so real, like I was there experiencing all of it. I wondered if I should talk to Hes about it, see if bizarre dreams were normal in Gravity Falls. Vampires and demons and fire spirits were normal here, I wondered what else was considered normal in this crazy town. 

Shit. I was wide awake now. I leaned over the edge of the bunk bed to look at the alarm clock. It was 4:30 am, and I wouldn’t be falling asleep any time soon. Maybe some tea would help. I decided to check the kitchn for some.

Yes! There was a couple different types of tea, stashed in a long-forgotten part of the cupboard. I started to heat up some water to make my self some chamomile tea. 

“Aren’t humans normally asleep at this hour? Especially when they don’t have school or work the next day.”

I jumped, looking behind me to see Hes leaning against the wall. Wow. The way he held himself, wearing only a thin pair of pajama pants that hung low on his hips made him look both completely bad ass… and really, really sexy. His teal eyes glowed softly in the dim light, making him look as inhuman and magical as he really was.

I could feel my face flush. I looked away, pouring hot water into a cup. “I had an odd dream. Woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep.”

“What kind of odd dream?” Hes asked, walking into the kitchen. He opened the fridge, rummaging around for a half-full gallon jug of milk.

I told him what I’d seen. Near the end, Hes seemed… angry? He was clutching his glass so hard I worried he’d shatter it. I couldn’t see his face very well in the low light, but his entire body was rigid. He relaxed a few seconds later.

“That truly is an odd dream,” he said. “If anything, I’d have to say that you’re a Seer.”

“A  _ what?” _

“A Seer. A person that can ‘see what others cannot.’ All of them are able to see the future and some can see auras, or the past, or things that are going on miles away from them. A very rare few can see all of the above.”

“Why on earth would I be like that? I’ve never had visions before, anyways.”

Hes shrugged. “There’s a theory- one that’s been proven numerous times- that there are bloodlines with magic in them, but the magic remains dormant until they go to someplace like here. And then their latent abilities awaken. Your family started to develop magical abilities when they first came to Gravity Falls 50 years ago. Not all of them can use it, Stan can’t, but there is magic in your family. It makes sense for you to be a Seer.”

“Okay then. Am I gonna keep getting visions? How do I control them? Can I see other stuff, too?”

Hes laughed. “So many questions, kid! But, yeah, you’ll see visions for the rest of your life now. Controlling your powers will take plenty of training, which I can help with. As for other powers, well, that will take some exploration.” He ruffled my hair. “Think you can get back to sleep?”

I shook my head.  “Too much stuff going on. Not even tea can make me sleepy now.”

“Humans need a lot more sleep than  you’ve gotten so far. Want a little help? I’ll make sure you get back into bed.”

I didn’t know what he would do, or even if it would work, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. “

He started to sing a lullaby in a low, soft voice. 

“ Dormi, mi fili, dormi –

sunt qui dicunt

vitam beatam esse:

dicunt, dicant, nesciunt.

 

Dormi, mi fili, dormi –

veniet dies

quo tibi erit

larga, largissima quies.

 

Dormi, mi fili, dormi –

aderit mox

mihi, tum tibi

ultima, optima nox.”

I didn’t learn most of the lyrics until much later, having fallen asleep sometime around the end of the first verse.

**********

I was really, really glad my bed was too high up for the light to shine on me in the morning. It meant I could sleep without sunlight disturbing my sleep. 

I forgot about the one other thing that could keep me from sleeping in on a Sunday. 

My twin sister. 

“Wake up, Dipdop!” she shouted. “Come on, Hes says he’s gonna show us Amber’s magic shop and we’re not going  anywhere without you!”

“Lemme sleep,” I groaned, rolling away from her.

“Come on, Dipper, get up!” Mabel pulled the covers off me. I grabbed them and pulled them up before trying to go back to sleep.

“Hes!” Mabel called. “Dipper’s not getting up!”

“Try this.” Mabel vanished for a moment. The next thing I knew, a bucket of ice water was dumped onto me. I sat up, sputtering and taking off my soaked shirt. 

“What was that for?” I gasped. 

“Mabel wanted to get going,” Hes said simply, not looking up from the book he was reading. “People are annoying when they’re impatient. So I gave her something that I figured would get you up.”

“You gave her a bucket of ice water?” I asked. “That’s mean.”

He closed his book. “It’s normal for me. Now, get dressed and get something to eat so we can get going."

**********

A half hour later we were walking through Gravity Falls towards Amber’s shop. Apparently Mabel had spent a good deal of time with the fire spirit, along with Candy and Grenda, having become fast friends with all three females. So, of course, she was really, really excited to see Amber’s shop.

Hes stopped beneath a sign that read “Omnium Gatherum” in a curly, flowery silver-lettered script. He sighed. “We’re here.” Mabel rushed inside, and Hes grabbed my arm before I could go after her. He looked at me. “You want to control your powers? We’re here to get something for that.”

I followed him inside. The shop was a completely disorganized mess of books and strange objects strewn about haphazardly on tables and shelves and bookcases. “Try not to touch anything,” Hes warned. “You’re not enough in tune with the supernatural yet to know what will and won’t kill or curse you.”

“Why does Amber have dangerous items in her shop?” I asked.

“Ehhhh, not inherently dangerous, per se. More like ‘something harmful to idiots who decide to touch it without knowing what it is or what it does,’” Hes said. 

“Why are you being so nasty this morning?” I asked. “You were nice to me yesterday.”

“Sorry,” Hes said. He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Your vision had a lot to do with me, and it was unsettling what you saw, particularly the end.”

“What do you mean?”

“Was this the necklace you saw in your dream?” He asked, reaching to pull a necklace out from under his shirt. Hanging off a leather cord was a twelve-pointed star suspended within a crescent moon, odd runic circles scattered throughout the design.

It was the exact same necklace I saw in my dream.

I gulped, nodding. “What does it mean?”

He sighed. “Something very, very bad. This is my totem. My symbol. Every demon has a design, a diagram that represents them. I never go anywhere without this necklace. So if you were holding it and crying, that means something happens to me. I don’t know what it is that’s going to happen, and that unsettles me even more. All I can do is hope we can change the future in the present.”

“What do you mean?”

“What you saw is what will happen if things continue the way they are. Unless something changes within someone involved in what you saw, it will become a reality.”

I shuddered at the thought. Hes clapped his hands. “Well, no more of that! We’re finding something to help control your powers, right?”

I nodded. “Now, then, off to harass Amber!” He took off into the maze of items, me following helplessly.

I finally caught up to Hes to see him laughing, Amber standing behind a counter and glaring daggers at Hes, and Mabel looking between the pair- seemingly debating between laughing and trying to help. 

“What’s going on?”

“I have no idea. Hes asked something about wanting holy water, salt and iron. Then this happened.”

“Oh.” 

Hes seemed to notice our confusion, so he explained, “Holy water burns demons, and iron burns fae, while salt is a barrier between humans and spirits. All very bad things for the both of us. Well, iron wouldn’t hurt me, but still…” He looked back at Amber. “If you’re done pouting, there’s something I actually do need to get from you.”

“I wasn’t pouting!” Amber protested. She gave him a suspicious look. “What do you want this time?”

He shrugged. “Dipper’s a Seer. We need something to help control his powers so he doesn’t pass out all of a sudden in class tomorrow.”

“Wait, what?” Mabel and I asked at the same time.

“I’ll explain later, Mabel. But, seriously Dipper. I’m not kidding, visions can be unpredictable until you can control them on your own. You could pass out or freeze up all of a sudden in class, getting some new vision of the future. Or past or present, if you have that power.”

I winced, grimacing at the thought. “I  _ so  _ don’t want that.”

“Figured. So, Amber, got anything for that?”

“Hmmm. He’s brand-new, from the sounds of it, so probably a combination of Xerexcine to hold back unwanted visions during the day and and an amulet to help give him some control.”

“What’s Xerexcine?” I asked, not really wanting to be medicated.

“What we generally give Seers so they don’t go insane,” Amber and Hes said.

Okay. Nevermind, I want that very much. “Sounds good,” I said.

“Great!” Amber clapped her hands together. “I’ll go prepare your prescription, and grab an amulet that should do the trick for you. Be back in a bit!” She then vanished behind a door.

Mabel noticed a jewelry case. “They’re so pretty!” she exclaimed. 

Hes walked up beside her. “If you want, I can tell you what each one does.”

“I’m gonna look around while we’re waiting,” I said.

Hes turned to look at me. “All right, go have fun. Remember what I said- don’t touch anything!”

I looked around, seeing books written in inhuman languages and items that glowed and items that looked mundane at first- although a second glance proved something was certainly off with some of them and the others probably had some magical property, due to the nature of the shop. I didn’t look where I was going and tripped over a loose floorboard. I braced myself for impact- 

Only to be caught in the arms of a handsome stranger. He had fluffy blonde hair that begged you to run your fingers through, bangs hiding his left eye and his right eye was a mesmerizing gold. He had such strong arms, I could feel his muscles pressing up against me and he was so-

Wait, hang on a second there! This guy is a complete stranger! You are not going to be like Mabel, you are not going to fall for someone you just met, there is no such thing as true lo-

“Enjoying the view?” the man asked, smirking.

I blushed. “Just startled, that’s all,” I huffed. 

“I see.” He shifted his weight, helping me stand. He extended a hand. “The name’s William Cipher, but you can call me Bill! You must be new, kid, I haven’t seen you around here before!”

“Just moved here yesterday with my sister,” I explained. “I’m Dipper. Dipper Pines.”

Bill opened his mouth to speak when Hes shouted, “Oi! Kid! Get your psychic butt over here!”

I raced back to the counter. Sitting on top was an orange bottle with a white cap and a bracelet with a blue pine tree charm on it.

Amber glanced at me intently, searching my eyes for… who knows what. She groaned, head slamming into the table. “Damn it, you’re more powerful than I guessed. The meds will do just fine, but that charm’s no where near strong enough to be useful.”

Hes whispered something into her ear. She grinned, getting up and rushing back into her mysterious other room. She emerged seconds later with something different- the same pine tree, but inside a crescent moon and on a black choker. “This will do a lot better, since it’s close to your heart and your head!”

“But chokers are for girls,” I complained.

“There are much stranger things in Gravity Falls, it’s not like anyone will care,” Hes said.

I sighed. “Fine. Hand me the dumb necklace.” Amber gave it to me. Once I put it on I felt lighter, like a weight I hadn’t realized was there was suddenly lifted. 

Hes paid for the pills and the necklace and we left her shop. I looked around as we were leaving, but Bill was nowhere in sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa~ THE DREAM DORRITO HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!  
> Alec- I see your headache is feeling better.  
> Alyssa~ Of course! Getting surrounded by spirits in a cemetery doesn't bother me forever!  
> Alec- Since I don't think we've mentioned this, Alyssa is a spirit medium. And we went to a cemetery to put flowers on the graves of some relatives who fought in WWI and WWII, and the spirits in the area kinda crowded her.  
> Alyssa~ Is it weird that I like cemeteries?  
> Alec- Very.  
> Alyssa~ Anywho, thanks for the wonderful reviews, guys!


	4. June 21-22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper finds Journal #3, and everyone goes looking for dragons.

The end of the school year was relatively normal. Well, as normal as any school in Gravity Falls could possibly be. PE was hell until you got used to having vampires, werewolves, and the occasional spirit in your class. Vampires and werewolves went to school with us because the weaker ones aged like us and had pretty much the same lifespan as humans, although there were some (like Dylan) that were immortal (and refused to attend school. Not like anyone tried to make them). Spirits were pretty much there because they were bored and wanted to mess with everyone.

Grunkle Stan and Hes notified the school that I was a Seer. Apparently it was district policy to let them know if any of their students aren’t normal humans so special accommodations could be made. Grunkle Stan normally didn’t seem to mind my powers, although he’d give me this look sometimes when he thought I couldn’t see him that was so full of grief and sadness I wondered if there was something wrong with being a Seer. 

Dylan and Wendy hung around the Shack almost every day. Wendy used to work there, apparently, and had an odd sort of playful banter type of relationship with Grunkle Stan. And Dylan, well, he was just bored. And he was all alone, his family having been murdered before he moved to the Mystery Shack fifteen years ago. He was a really cool guy, once you got past his “I-don’t-give-a-fuck-about-anyone” facade. He really did care about his friends, going ballistic when he learned Pacifica and her friends were making fun of Mabel’s artistic ideas (clothing and locker, essentially) or when some exorcist tried to “banish” Amber. That was an… interesting day.

I ran into Bill a couple of times when I went into town. We started to become friends, and he eventually started showing both eyes when he was around me. One eye tended to glow softly, so he didn’t really like letting people see it- although an eyepatch would draw attention and “look stupid.”

But things really started to get interesting when I found the journal.

Stan expected me and Mabel to work at the Shack, at least unless we found jobs elsewhere. So he’d sent me out to put up signs to guide people to the Mystery Shack. After all, people were on vacation now and there were swarms to tourists that needed directions, according to my Grunkle.

I would much rather be curled up someplace quiet with a good book, where no one and nothing could bother me for hours.

“Stay safe!” Hes shouted as I walked out the door. “Don’t touch anything unless you know what it is!”

“Stupid Grunkle Stan,” I grumbled as I trudged through the woods, occasionally stopping to hammer a sign into a tree. “Stupid tourists. Stupid signs.”

I tried to hammer a nail into a tree to hang the sign on it, but it was like I hit metal. “Huh?” I hit it again. Yep, it was metal. A freaking metal tree. Looking closer, I thought I noticed a ridge. Wiping away dust over a part of it,my hand brushed over a ledge. I grabbed the ledge, pulling open a sort of door in the tree to reveal a hollow space with an unknown machine. It looked like a metal box with some levers on top. I started messing with the levers, pausing when I heard a strange noise behind me. “What in the-”

I turned around to see a hole that had appeared in the ground behind me. Hidden inside was a dusty  red journal with a golden six-fingered hand on the cover. I blew some dust off and cracked open the book.

“ _ I can’t believe it’s been six years since I’ve started researching the strange creatures and events of Gravity Falls Oregon,”  _ I read. Wait a second, someone researched this place?

I flipped through the journal, noticing all kinds of monsters and oddities.  Then I read the final entry.  _ “It seems my suspicions are correct. I’m being watched. I have to hide this journal where no one can find it. Remember, in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust, _ ” I read. “ _ Trust no one _ .”

Was that really true? I wondered if the author had met Hes or Amber, or if he was around when Bill or Dylan had come to Gravity Falls? I was sure I could trust them, right?

I walked back to the Shack, journal hidden under my hoodie. Wendy was sitting on the counter next to the cash register, Mabel was talking to Dylan, Amber was buggin Soos, Hes was actually behind the cash register being bored, and Stan was yelling at them that they needed to be useful or get out.

I started to make my way to my room, trying to be sneaky. Unfortunately Hes spotted me, jumping over the counter to go after me. “You okay, Dipper? There’s something off?”

Could I really trust him, after the warning? I guessed I really had no reason not to, at the moment. “I found something.”

“Please tell me you didn’t find rainbow mushrooms,” Hes groaned. “Those things are dangerous for humans, and addictive. Worse than Smile Dip.”

I laughed. “No, I didn’t find those. I found this.” I pulled out the journal to show him.

Hes started to flip through the pages. “Someone was researching Gravity Falls?” He sounded confused. Wonder why I never knew about it.” He stopped at a page and grinned. “This person found dragons? Awesome!”

“Are dragons, like, really rare or something?”

“Extremely rare. Oh man, we gotta grab the others and go find one, this page tells us where!”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Of course. That way I can protect the area so the dragons stay safe and no innocent hikers get charbroiled.”

**********

Which is exactly why I was dragged from the comfort and safety of my bed before sunrise and found myself in the woods with Mabel, Hes, Amber, Wendy and Dylan the next day. Mabel had a camera (“This is  a perfect scrapbookertunity!”), Amber had brought a picnic lunch, and Hes had an enchanted dagger (“I hope I don’t need this, but better safe than sorry.”) Wendy was along for the ride, and Dyan said he was there because he had nothing better to do.

“It’s too early for a hike,” I grumbled. “Need more sleep.”

Mabel crept up behind me. “Tickle attack!” she shouted, tickling my sides.

I collapsed, taking my twin down with me. “Ah! No! Stop it, Mabel!”

“Humans are strange,” Dylan commented.

“I bet you’re ticklish, too,” Mabel said, giving him a look that made the vampire’s eyes widen with fear. 

“Oh, hell no.” He took off, Mabel chasing after him.

**********

Six hours and a lunch break later, we reached a series of caves in the cliff that helped create Gravity Falls valley. Thankfully, the ledge was pretty large.

“Hello!” A familiar voice called. We turned around to see Bill running up to us

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Hes muttered.

“Hi Bill!” I shouted.

“Hey, Pine Tree,” Bill greeted, panting. “I was gonna see the dragons when I saw you guys. What are you doing up here, anyways?”

“You knew about the dragons?” Amber asked.

“Course I did, Flame. I know lots of things,” he said. “ _ Lots _ of things.”

“You know how to piss someone off, that’s for sure,” Hes grumbled.

“What’s up with you?” I asked.

“Just ignore Hes right now,” Amber said. “He and Bill had a falling out a few millenia ago and they kinda hate each other.” We turned back in time to see the two arguing over whether or not people should know about they fact that there was a dragon nest in the woods. 

“Hey!” Mabel said. “Why don’t we all go to see the dragons together?”

“Sounds like a great idea,” Amber agreed. “Right, boys?” she asked, cracking her knuckles.

“Sure, fine, whatever,” Hes said, throwing up his hands in defeat. An angry Amber was not something anyone wanted to deal with.

**********

We reached the dragon nest a while later. It was hidden inside one of the caves. The place was sorta like a bird’s nest, well more like a floor made of twigs, hay (probably from some poor farmer), bones, and dragon scales.

“Dragon babies!” Mabel exclaimed. She, Amber and Wendy ran over to gush over the hatchlings. They were cool, but not very cute- at least in my opinion. Seeing a fully grown dragon would be way better. Dylan was making a somewhat disturbing picture out of the bones, Hes was setting up a protective spell, and Bill was following me around to make sure I stayed safe.

“Look at the size of this scale!” I exclaimed, picking up a deep blue scale twice as big as my face near the cave entrance.”This thing is massive.”

Bill nodded. “That gives you an idea of how massive the dragon is,” he commented. “Let’s hope we can leave before we get BBQ’d by that thing.”

“Ah, I’m sure we’ll be fine.” As if on cue, a huff of hot air passed over us. Hes looked in our direction, eyes widening in fear.

“It’s behind us, isn’t it?” I asked.

Hes nodded. “And it has three heads.”

Bill and I turned around slowly. Filliing up the entrance was a three-headed beast whose stomach could probably fit the entire Mystery Shack, with three heads and deep blue scale and smoking mouths. The monster growled.

“We’re dead,” Amber muttered.

“Hey! Calm down, you big baby!” Mabel shouted at the dragon. “We’re not here to hurt you!!”

Bad idea. Somehow the dragon seemed to take offense to that. All three heads let loose a stream of fire that encased the cavern. I braced myself, closing my eyes and preparing for death. But it didn’t come.

I could feel heat. Immense heat. But I was still alive. I opened my eyes. Bill was standing in front of us, holding up a protective barrier that kept him and I safe. I looked around to see Hes doing the same for everyone else.

The fire stopped. “Ohgod, ohgod, runrunrunrun!” Dylan shouted. “There’s a tunnel at the back of the cave, come on!”

It took a few seconds for the dragon to realize we were still alive, but by that time we were all pretty much halfway to the tunnel. Of course, then the monster had to start going after us. 

“Faster!” Hes shouted.

“We’re so close!”

“He’s gaining on us!”

“She! Females are the only ones with three heads!”

“Now’s not the time to be a smart alec, Hes!”

We dashed into the tunnel, which should have been too small for that dragon to have fit into. Should have been.

“Phew, safe,” Dylan breathed once we were a ways into the tunnel, which was lit by glowing crystals.

“We need to keep moving!” Bill said. “Females can change size!”

I flipped to the page in my journal about dragons. “He’s right! We’ve gotta go, now!”

We started to run again, looking back again to see a smaller three-headed dragon barrelling down the tunnel after us.

“Does that journal of yours give any way to get rid of the dragon?!” Dylan cried.

I looked everywhere, all over the page.”Uh, here! It says _a flame analogous to the dragon’s will scare it off_! Wait, what does that mean?”

“It means this!” Bill and Hes shouted. They both shot out a fire at the same time, BIll’s blue mixing with Hes’s red to create a deep purple. As soon as the dragon saw this, she turned around and ran away from us, whimpering.

“Okaaaay,” I said. “That was… odd.”

“A dragon’s fire matches it’s scales,” Hes explained. “If something else has a fire too similar to it’s own- and they see colors differently than we do- it scares the creature and it flees.”

“That makes sense, I guess.”

“It’s like if you saw a clone of yourself,” Bill said. “Creepy? Right? That’s why it scares dragons.”

“Oh. I get it, now.”

Bill grinned, sticking his tongue out at Hes. Hes rolled his eyes. “Oh, shove it. I’m a perfectly capable teacher.”

“Are not! You couldn’t teach a fish to swim!”

Their bickering continued, interrupted by Mabel asking, “You guys worked so well together! Why can’t you be friends?” a few minutes later.

“No way in hell!”

“Yeah, cuz that’s where you were born.”

“I take offense to that, you stupid crescent!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec- Hello, all. Sooo, Alyssa's cake was... interesting, and she's gonna make it again. Oh, and we had to banish an evil spirit from her room. Yep, life as usual.
> 
> Alyssa~ So glad that thing's gone! It was annoying and liked to leave gashes on my leg.


	5. June 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper, Mabel, Hes and Bill deal with a fleurry infestation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa~ We've started messing around with POVs! Well, not messing, exactly, but there are a few scenes and chapters coming up where Dipper can't really tell them. 
> 
> Alec- Yeah. One of them's in this chapter, so, you have been warned.

**Dipper POV**

I think everyone was pretty much used to Mabel’s weirdness by this point. Soos was letting her use his break room for her art projects- apparently he thought it fun to watch her work- and all sorts of things came in and out of it. The things that came out were pure Mabel, but the things that went in… Well, I’ve see the goat, a statue that looked like the Moai from Easter Island, a swordfish, and the list goes on. 

I should also mention that Bill had been sleeping over that night after the “dragon incident,” and was still there that afternoon. He and Hes were sometimes at each other’s throats, but they generally seemed to go or childishly pretending the other didn’t exist. Stan had left that morning, saying he had to go out of town to get something and would be back tomorrow.

Anyways, Bill and I were watching  _ Independance Day  _ while Hes was working in the gift shop when Mabel ran through with something especially unusual. She blew past carrying what appeared to be a giant, winged fuzzball the size of her head.  It also seemed to be making some high-pitched trills and chirps. 

Bill blinked. “What the heck?”

Hes walked into the room. “Was it just me, or did Mabel come through with a fleurry?”

I’d read about those in the journal.  _ ‘Fleurry- relatively harmless. Can be extremely annoying to some people. Do not let them inside your house, or near a non-transparent wall.’  _

“... Let’s check it out,” I said. 

We all walked into Mabel’s “office,” where she was holding a squirming, hot pink Fleurry. Hes’ eyes widened with recognition. “Get that thing out of here before we have an infestation!” the strawberry blonde shouted.

“As funny as it would be to see Hes deal with a million fleurries swarming his house, I get the feeling Pine Tree wouldn’t like it so I have to agree. Get that thing out of the house,” Bill said. 

“It can’t be  _ that  _ bad,” I said.”The journal said they were harmless.”

“Mostly,” Hes agreed. “But they multiply quickly, and we need to get this one out of the house quickly.”

“No!” Mabel protested. “I’ve wanted a pet for forever and you’re not taking this one from me!”

“But, Mabel..”

“NO!”

Since there was really no use arguing with her, we all left. Bill and I went to finish our movie and Hes left to finish taking inventory in the shop.

All was well until a baby blue fleurry floated into the room and in front of the TV. I waved it out of the way. “Mabel needs to keep track of her new ‘pet’ a bit better,” I grumbled.

“Wasn’t it pink?” Bill asked. 

“Yeah… can those things change color or something?”

Bill shrugged and we went back to the movie. A very frustrated Hes stormed into the room a few minutes later. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“There are already six fleurries in the gift shop!” Hes said. “And they’re eating the clothing on the racks!” He groaned. “Stan’s gonna kill me when he gets back.”

“They eat clothes?”

Bill nodded. “And grains, and sugar, and paper, although they don’t eat pillows or furniture. They also eat a lot, which is mostly why people tend to hate them.”

“Mabel only brought in one, though. Why are six in the gift shop?”

“Fleurries clone themselves whenever they bump into a wall, or another of their kind,” Hes explained. “It looks like Mabel wasn’t  keeping her fleurry contained properly.”

“Why don’t we talk to her and see about getting some of these out of here?” I suggested.

So the three of us went back to Mabel’s office. I could hear a chorus of high-pitched coos and trills and chirps coming from the other side.I tried to open the door. “It won’t budge.”

“Let me try,” Bill said. He turned the handle. “It’s not locked.” He pushed against the door. “Why won’t this thing open?!”

“Open up, Mabel!” Hes said. “We need to talk to you!”

“Not a good idea!” Mabel called from outside. “You can talk from over there.”

Bill growled, his hands glowing. “We’re coming in whether you like it or not!” He shouted, using his magic to blast the door open, almost ripping it from it’s hinges. Before we could enter, a swarm of at least a few hundred fleurries burst out of the room and into the rest of the house. A couple dozen remained in the room with Mabel, who was smiling sheepishly.”Oops?”

Hes groaned. “And now we have a fleurry infestation.”

“Huh. I thought it would’ve taken at least a day to get that many. Good job, Star!” Bill had met her yesterday and started calling her  “Shooting Star” after the shooting star sweater she was wearing that day.

“Okay, we should be able to chase them out so long as none of them have-” Hes started to say, before he noticed about four fleurries nuzzling themselves into the couch in the room. “Settled. Well, shit.”

“Why is that a problem?” I asked.

“Because that means they think this place is their home now and it’s next to impossible to get them out,” Bill said.

“So we’re stuck with them all?” Mabel asked, exhasparated. “They ate a bunch of my sweaters and a couple projects I was working on! And the Smile Dip!”

“Pretty sure it’s a good thing the Smile Dip’s gone now,” I said. 

Hes was lost in thought. “Well, there may be one way.” He looked at Mabel. “Hey, Mabel. Text Amber and tell her to bring patchouli oil. Lots of it. And some spritz bottles.”

*******

We’d moved to the porch to avoid getting the clothing we were wearing being gnawed on by the army of fleurries swarming around inside the house. Amber drove up a while later on her dirt bike. She pulled off her helmet, looking slightly annoyed.

“What’s up with the patchouli?” Amber asked. “It’s not the cheapest oil out there, ya know.”

“We have a major fleurry infestation,” Hes said.

“Ah. I see.”

“What’s patchouli and what does it have to do with the fleurries?” Mabel asked.

“It’s a member of the mint family,” I said, remembering what I read about it in the journal.  “Also a an aphrodesiac, and a component of a few love spells.”

“Yeah, and the fleurry equivalent of insect repellent,” Hes said. “We gotta spray a good amount of it in every room and it’ll flush out the little monsters pretty fast.”

So we did. It took a half hour since we had to navigate around the fleurries- who had eaten a good chunk of what was in the kitchen and almost all of the paper-based items and clothing in the gift shop- but we managed to spray down every room in the Mystery Shack. By the end of it, all the fleurries had fled the building.

“Stan’s gonna kill me,” Hes groaned, slumping against the wall.

“No way! I’ll make sure he doesn’t!” Mabel promised.

Bill wrinkled his nose. “I wish there was a different way to get rid of them. Not a fan of patchouli.”

“I bet not,  _ William _ ,”

A tent formed in Bill’s pants so fast it looked almost painful. The blonde stalked over to Hes. “If I didn’t hate you, then I’d be fucking you so hard you couldn’t  _ stand  _ right now,” he growled.

Hes just laughed.

*********

**3rd person POV**

“Why’d you drag me out back?” Bill asked, crossing his arms. 

“Why are you here, in the physical plane?” Hes asked. “And hanging around the younger Pines?”

Bill shrugged. “Had a some problems back in the Nightmare Realm, so I ended up here. As for Pine Tree, well, we just sorta… hit off, I guess.”

Hes’ eyes narrowed. “There’s no way I’m going to believe that explanation and you know it.”

“But it’s the truth!”

“You’re lying! There’s no way you could’ve entered the physical plane!”

“Look,  _ She’s  _ back, okay? I ticked her off, and she decided to… punish me.”

Hes paled. “She’s… back?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec- sorry the update took so long. There's been finals and banishings and a whole bunch of other stuff going on. Like a now open investigation of our pedophile stepdad.
> 
> Alyssa~ And a potential comic we're working on. Oh, and most of the non-sensitive stuff is on our main blog on Tumblr!
> 
> http://twinsofthebloodmoon.tumblr.com/
> 
> Aaaand we have another blog for stuff from our stories! I'm working on something we're gonna post on there soon, so look out!
> 
> http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/


	6. June 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper gets himself into trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec: Wow, chapter six is the first chapter that's purely filler. That's, that's amazing.
> 
> Alyssa: Yeah. Also, Alec actually has patchouli oil in his room and I HATE IT. Then again, I love the smell of Dragon's Blood oil and he can't stand it, so I guess we're even.

ill went home not long after we cleared the house of fleurries. Hes quit being a grouch, and continued to panic about the damage done- mainly to the gift shop merch, since Grunkle Stan would care about that the most.

I learned that I hated the smell of patchouli. It smelled like rubbing alcohol, and Mabel seemed to get a borderline high off it. And the house still reeked of it the next day. I read in the Journal that the sirens should be mating today, so I decided to go check that out instead of get a headache from the smell that permeated every single room in the Shack. 

I just told Hes I was going for a walk. He’d probably try to stop me from going, seeing as how sirens are man-eating seducers. But the Journal said that sirens are so focused on mating that they generally don’t pay any attention to humans, unless said human happens to be in the water with them. Then they go kinda nuts, trying to kill and consume the poor individual as soon as possible.

Looking back, I see how this was a very bad idea. At the time, it seemed like a great thing to pass the time until the house aired out a bit.

I couldn’t see anything from the bank, so I climbed a tree along the shoreline for a better view. Oh god, it was incredible. A chorus of beautiful voices filled the air as sirens swam around in what was almost a sort of mating dance, searching for the voice that complimented theirs. I was so enthralled with the experience that I didn’t notice myself edging further along the branch in a subconscious need to be as close to the action as possible.

I edged onto a part of the branch that wasn’t strong enough to support my weight. A loud snapping sound broke me out of the trance-like state I was in as the branch broke, sending me tumbling into the waters below. I had just enough time to think ‘ _ this was a very bad idea’  _ before the sirens broke into a frenzy, grabbing and clawing at me in an attempt to be the one to kill me. One of the females succeeded, grabbing my arm with a pair of clawed hands and dragging me deeper into the waters. I struggled against her iron grip, slowly running out of oxygen. 

Black spots were starting to cloud my vision when a figure kicked the siren away ( _ ‘wow, they’re strong’)  _ and pulled me to the surface and onto dry land. Once I coughed out all the water in my lungs I looked up at my savior. It was Hes.

“If you wanted to go swimming, I know a place we could go where sirens won’t be there to try and kill you,” Hes said. “Would you like me to show you?”

Now that I was out of the water I noticed that the temperature had risen considerably since I’d left the house. Maybe a swim would be nice. “Sure.”

I followed the demon through the woods. “So, how did you know where to find me? And know I was in trouble.” I asked a while later.

Hes shrugged. “You were gone for a couple hours, so I was worried about you. Since I knew it was mating season for the sirens, and that you and your sister tend to be trouble magnets, I put two and two together and came after you.”

“Makes sense.” Wait a second. “I was gone for a couple hours? No way, it was like, five minutes!”

Hes shook his head. “The thing about sirens during mating season is that their music is still hypnotic, still able to drag anyone and everyone to their deaths. And still makes time seem like it stands still.”

“Oh.”

Hes led me to the lake he and Mabel had been swimming in on our first day in Gravity Falls, and then proceeded to take off his shirt in pants, so he’d be swimming in his boxers. I was pretty sure Hes was the son of a sex god, or something. Wow, he was ripped. His biceps were well-defined and he had an awesome set of abs. And the way the afternoon sun hit his tanned skin… I think I was salivating.

He looked at me. “Well, are you gonna swim with your clothes on or something?” he asked, tilting his head.

I blushed. “Don’t look,” I said. 

“Why not? We’re both guys, and it’s not like I’m gonna see anything I shouldn’t.”

“Just don’t, okay?” I was never very comfortable with my own body, it’s always been stick-thin and scrawny. I was feeling especially self-conscious after seeing Hes’ Greek temple of a body.

I didn’t give Hes the okay until I was safely in the water. The immortal chuckled, jumping in after me, sending a wave to wash over me. I sputtered, splashing him back. At which point a splash-battle began. Hes won by using magic to create a ten-foot wave that he then sent my way.

I resurfaced, coughing. “You cheated,” I muttered.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

I looked over at him. That’s when I noticed the strange bands above his wrists. It was three rows of symbols, each row separated by a line. “What’s that on your arm?” I asked.

Hes shrugged. “Unless you were once human, most immortals don’t actually have a corporeal form. At least, not one that wouldn’t send humans fleeing in fear due to it’s sheer size. Which is why I created a human form for me to use- it makes my dealings in Gravity Falls easier. These are binding marks, and they keep me in this body. The more binding marks there are, the more strongly tied they are to the body, and the harder it is for them to use their powers.”

“So what does it mean that you have two?”

“One pair means I’m only loosely tied to this body. I could leave any time I wanted, and have access to almost all of my power. If an immortal had, say three pairs, it would be next to impossible for them to leave the body and they would only be slightly more powerful than an ordinary human with magic.”

“Wow. Have you ever seen someone like that?”

Hes nodded. “Once.” He paused. “The only way to get rid of the bindings is to cut off the appendage they belong to. Even if you injure the area the binding marks are on badly enough to leave a nasty scar, the area where the bindings are will heal as though nothing had ever happened to the area.”

“Wow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec: Sorry, we were planning to update sooner, but things went a bit crazy.
> 
> Alyssa: Yeah, not only did I have to deal with a break-up, but Alec's debit card got stolen, our grandmother thought her father died (he's still alive, but barely), packing to fly cross-country to visit our dad's side of the family, oh and we had to deal with our sister telling me she never wants to hear from us ever again.
> 
> Alec: I think we ought to give you guys an idea of how our 2016 has been, for the sake of context. Okay, so one week into the year we were disowned by our mother, stepfather and sister because I'm homosexual, Alyssa's demi, and we're both Wicca. Alyssa started having nightmares and panic attacks, so we went to see a psychologist, which is when the abuse she dealt with from our stepdad came out. So a police case was filed, and Alyssa started having somewhat disturbing flashbacks. We made it though the trimester (yeah, our college is trimester-based) with straight A's, amazingly, and then spent a few weeks with our real dad. We came home, one of our friends had roommate issues, and our little sister decided to harass us both for a bit. Things were cool until Mother's Day when Alyssa decided to make our mom a cake because she still loves the woman. Which was sent back untouched with a nasty note. Our mother had been harassing Alyssa for a while before that, but that kinda made Alyssa snap. So Alyssa attempted suicide and spent a week in a coma in the hospital. We then moved in with our super-amazing uncle. And that's about when we started posting things on AO3, so you know what happened afterwards.


	7. June 26 (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel gets a job, and Hes and Bill's past is discussed

**Dipper POV**

“Can I take off the blindfold now?” I asked. “You haven’t even told me where we’re going.” Hes had woken me up, shoved a plate of pancakes at my face, then tied a blindfold over my eyes and said there was something he wanted to show me before dragging me out of the house to who-knows-where. Probably some place in the woods.

“Not just yet, and I don’t want to ruin the surprise.” We stopped a few seconds later.

“Can I take it off  _ now?” _

“Not quite… Okay. Now.” Before I could even move, the blindfold fell away. We were in a clearing deep in the woods.

“I don’t see why-” I started to say, then the world exploded with color. Wings fluttered all around us, birds of every single color flying around us, surrounding us from every angle as the flew higher into the air.

“Whoa,” was about the only coherent word that came out of my mouth.

Hes was standing next to me, smiling softly. “They’re phoenixes. Once a year they travel to another world to mate, returning after the autumnal equinox. Although it’s not quite as amazing.”

“I- It’s beautiful.” The phoenixes were refracting light, the iridescent display of colors covering us both. The sight was beautiful. Hes was beautiful.

Aw, crap. Hes was really, really cool, but he also said he wasn’t into mortals. Seers counted as mortals, right? Maybe.

Eventually all of the phoenixes flew through a portal above our heads, taking them to their mating grounds in another world. A part of me really wanted to see it, but another part of me was afraid. Afraid something bad would happen, though I wasn’t sure what. Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t know what would  be on the other side is what was holding me back from asking Hes if we could follow them. 

We started to make our way back.  “Hey, how do you think Mabel’s doing in Amber’s shop?” I asked. Mabel had gotten a job helping Amber out in her store, and today was her first day.

***********

**Mabel POV**

“Okay, kiddo, the first thing you gotta do here is learn how to tell what things will and won’t kill mortals like you if you touch them. Or turn you into a toad. Or a sparrow. Or shuffle the functions of your face,” Amber announced. I grimaced at the thought. But that didn’t kill my excitement. Amber’s shop was so cool! And I couldn’t wait to start working here.

“How are we going to do that? Are you going to teach me magic? Can I do magic? Can Dipper use magic, since he’s a Seer! I’m pretty sure Hes knows magic, hey, how long have you known him?”

Amber caught all of my questions and tried to answer each one. “I’m going to teach you how to sense energy. It’s useful in magic, but not technically using magic. I have no idea if you can use magic, we’ll have to figure that out if time goes on. Dipper can probably use magic, and the same goes for you. Yeah, Hes is pretty good at magic. I’ve known Hes for a few thousand years, although he’s consciously known me for about thirty.”

“How come?”

**************

**Dipper POV**

“I’m sure she’ll be just fine,” Hes said. “Amber’s pretty responsible. Most of the time. Unless there’s drinking involved. Especially ambrosia. Whatever you do, Dipper, stay away from ambrosia. It’s worse than Smile Dip.”

“Noted. Hey, how long have you known Amber, anyways?”

The demon shrugged. “I honestly have no idea.”

“How can you not know how long you’ve known someone?”

“Easy, since I can only really remember the last thirty years of my life. The rest is kinda jumbled.”

“Seriously? Wait, how old are you, exactly?”

“Ehhh, older than this dimension, that I  _ do  _ know. Thirty years ago I woke up in the woods with no memory of anything, even my own name. Stan’s the one that found me. He took me into his home and let me stay there as long as I helped out in the Shack and around the house. Over time I’ve started to remember things from before, but most of it’s covered in a haze.”

“Oh. What happened between you and Bill. You  _ have  _ to remember that.”

Hes’ face darkened. “Really, really bad stuff.” And that was all he said on the topic.

************

**Mabel**

“Hes has amnesia, poor kid. And, yeah, by the standards of his race he  _ is  _ still a kid. Same goes for Bill.”

“They’re demons, right?

“Yes and no. Bill Cipher is a demon through and through. Hes’ mother was a goddess, so he sort of has her powers and could totally become way more powerful if he had a few worshippers, maybe a cult. They’re brothers.”

“Really? Guess that means they’re half brothers, then.”

“Nah, I’m adopted,” Bill said, making me jump. I didn’t even hear the bell above the door ring. How did he get in here so quietly?

Once I got over my shock I looked over at him. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah. We were really, really close. We… yeah.”

“Why are you guys being all stupid and fighting all the time, then? I mean, if you were really that close…”

“Bill was an idiot,” Amber said. “That’s the easiest way to explain it.”

“Was not!”

“Yeah, you were. I was there, remember?”

“Still doesn’t mean you get to call me an idiot,” Bill huffed. “I know lots of things. Lots of things. Too much to be considered dumb.”

“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t mean you’re not an idiot.”

***********

**Dipper POV**

The rest of the walk home was quiet, at least until we heard fluttering wings and tiny, high-pitched giggles. Hes groaned. “Great. We must have wandered near some pixies. Let’s get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Why? The Journal says they’re not dangerous,” Dipper pointed out.

“True, but they are really annoying,” the strawberry blonde said. “In multiple ways.”

“You offend us,” a tiny voice said. A number of small creatures appeared in front of us. They were somewhat humanoid, minus their pointy ears, four arms, and wings that were a cross between and dragonfly and a butterfly. I recognized it as a pixie from the Journal.

“It’s a fact,” Hes said to the creature. “I’m not afraid of you morons. I can undo whatever silly prank you try to pull on me.”

“Is that a challenge?” the head pixie asked.

“Not particularly.”

“So you’re a coward, then.”

“No, just not in the mood to deal with your silliness.”

“Oh? Well, let’s see how you handle  _ this. _ ” He then pointed one of his hands at me, chanting something in what was probably the pixie’s native tongue.

I looked down to see that I was glowing softly. Then my entire body started to feel like it was on fire. I fell to my knees, whimpering with pain.

Hes grabbed the creature, trying to make it stop. No such luck. There was a flash of light, and I think I blacked out for a few seconds. When I came to, I was on my back and Hes was hovering over me, worried. 

“What happened?”

“Ummm…” a mirror appeared in his hand and he gave it to me. “You should probably just see for yourself.”

I took a look. “Is that… cat ears?”

“And I’m pretty sure your canines are sharper. And you have a tail,” Hes pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. “Let’s hope you’re just a neko and not a werecat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa~ WE'RE BACK! Sorry it's been so long, our inspiration to write totally just... died for a bit. Then we had to go to Utah for a funeral, then we spent a few weeks with our cousins - most of them, since we have 15 on our dad's side and not all of them were there- and then my insulin pump malfunctioned big time (I have Type 1 diabetes, deal with it) and we just got back to Oregon on Thursday.
> 
> Alec- Yeah, that about sums it up. Oh, and we're letting you guys decide if Dipper stays part-cat or not. We're not posting the next chapter until we get at least five comments with their votes. We know more than that many read this, just based on how many bookmarks we have.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel learns to look into the depths of a person's soul (and figure out what in Amber's shop _won't_ kill her), and an attempt is made to begin to figure out how to fix Dipper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand the results are- an overwhelming majority voted for Dipper staying part cat and zip voting for changing him back!

**Mabel**

After discussing Hes and Bill’s past, we finally got to work. Well, more like Amber actually ran the shop while Bill showed me how to sense different magical energies, which turned into learning how to sense auras- which apparently anyone can do, given training.

The first aura I looked at belonged to Amber. Hers looked like she was covered in deep red flames, with bits of blue and magenta flickering inside.

It was really cool. Amber also explained to me that the colors of a person’s aura meant something different from the energies of non-living things and plants. There was so much cool stuff Amber could show me, even more so now that I knew what not to touch!

**Hes**

Either way, it didn’t really matter if Dipper was a werecat or a neko, he still freaked out. At first there was a good deal of him pacing, some denial, some adamant insisting that this was just some crazy dream- or Mabel had spiked his breakfast with Smile Dip. Then I yanked his tail to prove that it was, in fact, real, causing him to hiss very much like a cat. He was so spooked he froze up for a few seconds before passing out.

I carried him back to the Shack, setting him onto the couch before wandering into the kitchen to grab a sandwich. I had every intention of finding a way to fix Dipper, mind you, but I was hungry. 

I walked back into the living room as Dipper was waking up. “We’re back at home. So it really must’ve been a dream, then.”

“Try to touch your ears,” I said, taking a bite out of my sandwich. He obeyed, about to freak out when he brushed against the furry ears on top of his head.

“Calm down, Dipper,”  I said. “I’m going to find a way to fix this, all right? But it’s a lot easier if you just stay calm. Deep breaths.”

It took a few minutes, but I managed to get him into a- well, not a totally calmed down state, more like a sort-of-calm-but-still-freaking-out-internally sort of mode. I smiled. “There we go.”

“What now?”

“Now I need to analyze the spell, and figure out what exactly the faeries  _ did _ .”

**Mabel**

The next aura I decided to take a look at belonged to Bill. His was most certainly… odd. It was like a giant gold triangle was floating behind him or something, with a kaleidescopic array of orange, black, magenta and gold clashing around inside, It made my eyes hurt to look at it for too long, and that was saying something.

“Why is your aura triangle-shaped?” I asked. “And so chaotic?”

Amber looked at him. “Bill, you idiot. You showed her how to glimpse as a person’s soul, not their aura.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Auras are a person’s physical and emotional state. Seeing the soul is something else entirely. The colors represent parts of our personality, and the shape is our true form.”

“Okay. Well then that makes sense that your soul looked like flames. But what about Bill?”

Bill rolled up his pant leg to show me a band that wrapped around his ankles. They looked like a row of black interlocking triangles, then a row of six-pointed stars, then another row of triangles.

“This is what ties me into a human body. It’s mine, trust me. But in reality I’m a triangular chaotic dream demon.”

“What is Hes’ true form?”

“Why don’t you see for yourself when you get home?” Bill asked.

**Dipper**

“Uhh, he made me part cat. I’m pretty sure that’s pretty obvious.”

Hes sighed. “Yeah. But there’s a lot more to magic than just the end result. A spell can be incredibly tricky and complicated, or it can be as simple as they come, and still get the same result. And the more complicated the spellcraft, the harder it will be for me to undo.”

“Okay, so how do we figure this out?”

“Sit down and relax,.” Hes said. I sat on the floor. Hes sat in front of me and grabbed my hands. A pale blue light surrounded us as he closed his eyes, going into a meditative sort of state.

**Mabel**

Bill walked back to the Mystery Shack with me after work. “Hey, Bill, do you think you and Hes will ever be friends again?”

Bill shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows? I won’t until he apologizes for what he did.”

“What did he do?”

He sighed. “Look, kid, as much as I dislike my brother for what’s happened, I don’t want you to hate either of us for what we’ve both done. So, please don’t ask either of us about it, okay?”

“Okay.”

I don’t think either of us expected what we saw when we walked inside. Dipper and Hes were sitting on the floor, Hes was grabbing Dipper’s hands with his eyes closed. Dipper seemed pretty bored, and had cat ears and a tail that was flicking.

“Why do you have cat ears?” Bill asked.

“Awww, you look so cute, Dipper!” I shouted at the same time. He winced.

“Pixies. We ran into pixies and one of them took what Hes said as a challenge, and this was the result,” Dipper explained.

“What was the challenge?” Bill asked.

“That he could undo whatever prank they pulled. The ears and tail are real, by the way. We checked.”

Bill snorted. “Figures. That is so like him.”

At which point Hes broke out of whatever trance he was in to yell at Bill, and then they argued over who was more likely to get themselves (and me and Dipper) into trouble until Grunkle Stan walked in and yelled at us all to be quiet.

Bill went home after a while and Hes and Dipper went to bed while I stayed up late to work on my latest art project. It was almost 2 am when I finally crawled upstairs to go to bed. I remembered what Amber had said about Hes, and wanted to take a peek at his Ka. 

I walked over to the bunk bed, mentally preparing myself. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, what I saw was beautiful. Floating over Hes was a large silver being covered in a pale, ethereal glow- way to big to fit in the bed. Massive bird wings sprouted from it’s shoulders, constellations in orange and blue scattered across it’s wings. 

That begged the question- just what was Hes, really?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa: Wow, things have been crazy once again. I started a personal blog (yay!) and we got super involved with Cipher Hunt! The statue's gotta be in Oregon. It wouldn't make sense for it to be anywhere else. And when they find it Imma gonna go shake Bill's hand!
> 
> Alec: And then bring about the end of the world. Perfect. On a side note, in ancient Egyptian mythology, a person’s soul was divided into Akh, Ba, and Ka. Akh was the part that would move on to the afterlife, Ba was their personality, and Ka was the part that required earthly things like food and drink. Because the most base level of auras is a person’s physical and emotional state, if one were to tie aura-seeing to the ancient Egyptian view of the soul then auras would be Ka. At least, this is our theory.
> 
> Alyssa: Speaking of the story, we got so many comments! See, we knew people were reading this! If so many people keep leaving comments for the rest of this crazy fic, then we’ll give you guys a surprise after each “month.” Yeah, we’re talking about month in the fic, as in how it’s in June not in the story. And there’s one more chapter before July…
> 
> Alec: Oh, and we do have ONE more thing for you guys. Alyssa and I are majorly into art as well as writing, and we’re planning on making this story into a comic. Yeah, that’s a thing now. If only we can get to finishing character designs...


	9. June 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to do a bit of spring cleaning! Well, it's not exactly spring, but it's still the same thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the villain of the story finally appears!

**Dipper**

A loud crash startled me out of my thoughts. I was searching the journal for some information on werecats, just in case.The full moon was supposed to be tomorrow, and Hes said we’d have no idea if I was a werecat until the full moon. 

I made my way downstairs where Hes was standing next to a hole in the wall, fuming. He noticed me. “There was a gnome. It was trying to steal stuff from the kitchen,” he said simply.

“So you decided to blow a hole in the wall?”

“That happened on accident.” He looked away, blushing. “I don’t understand most of my power. I only vaguely know who I got it from.”

“Do you mean your parents?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. I kinda remember them, but not that well.”

“Do you… do you know if they’re still alive?”

He shook his head. That’s when I decided something. “I’m gonna help you get your memories back. I promise.”

“Thanks, but I don’t even know if you can. Maybe I’m just better off not knowing.”

“I doubt it.” I glanced at the hole. “I don’t know what this room is. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Me either, and I’ve been here thirty years. Wanna check it out?”

“I really ought to get back to the journal. And I haven’t made a dent into my summer reading list, and June’s almost over.”

“Aww come on, Dipper! If it gets boring you can go back to your books, I swear.”

I sighed. “Fine.”

**Mabel**

“Bill, Mabel, I need you two to go clean out the storage room,” Amber said. 

“You got, it, boss!” Bill said, giving her a mock salute before dragging me into the back.

“Hey, do you actually work here?” I asked as I followed him. “Cuz I see you doing work whenever you’re in here, but Amber said she didn’t have any employees when she hired me.”

“I don’t  _ technically  _ work here, but I do stuff for Amber if I walk in here and I’m not looking for anything, and she pays me. Sort of.” He chuckled. “Heh, Amber’s the first person I’ve taken orders from in a long time.”

“Really? Since when?”

Bill shrugged. “Roughly four thousand years. I was working for Erra back then. Actually, it’s how I met Hes in the first place.”

“Really? What were you doing then?”

Bill turned to look to her. “Since I don’t really like giving out information without getting anything in return, how about we make a deal? One favor for each question about my past. Nothing big, pretty much just along the lines of opening soda cans for me or grabbing something I left in my car for me.”

That didn’t sound too bad. “Sure. It’s a deal.” 

Bill stuck out his hand, which had burst into blue flames.. “We seal deals with a handshake. Well, Hes and I do. Most of my powers are sealed up tight, but I can at least do this much. Don’t worry, the fire’s not hot.” I shook his hand.

**Dipper**

The room was mostly empty, save for a few boxes in the corner. “I bet we could make this into another bedroom,” Hes said. “Give it to Mabel so it’s just you and me upstairs.”

“I bet Mabel would like that. Remember when she accidentally ran in while you were changing?” I said, a small smile forming at the memory.

Hes laughed. “Yeah. Your sister really needs to learn how to knock.”  He opened the box, which was full of photos. He pulled out one, which showed a Hes that looked six years old, sporting a backpack and standing in front of the Stanmobile. “Hey! I remember this! This was from when Stan tried to make me go to school. That was a very bad idea.”

“Why? I thought schools in Gravity Falls were designed to handle supernaturals. Or is a demon just too much for them?” I asked.

“I’m not like most demons, is what Stan told me. Anyways, school wound up being a disaster, so I wound up being homeschooled. That was before I got back any of my memories.”

“What started to bring them back?”

“I ran into Bill. At first he’d come into my dreams to make fun of the fact that I’d gotten myself sealed into a child’s body, then when he realized I’d lost my memories he tried to make a deal with me. Said he’d help me get my memories back in exchange for a  _ favor.  _ That’s when the memory of our fight came back to me and I told him there was no way in hell.”

“What did he do that was so bad?”

“Trust me, Dipper. It’s best if you don’t know. All I’ll say about it was that Bill had some big plans that weren’t good, for anyone. And he not only refused to give up on them, he tried to drag  _ me  _ into that scheme of his.”

“Aww, come on, it couldn’t have been that bad, right?”

“You have no idea. Demons are very powerful, Dipper. You have no idea what either Bill or I are truly capable of, and it’s best that it stays that way.”

**Mabel**

“Okay, first question,” I said, reminding myself of Dipper. “What were you like, back when you met Hes? And what’s this one going to cost you?” We’d started cleaning out the back room at this point.

“Not much, probably just a Pitt Cola. To answer your question, well, I was working for the Akkadian god Erra at the time. He’s the god of mayhem, war, and general destruction, and I’d kinda started to pick up my boss’s characteristics.”

“Okay. So, how did you and Hes meet?”

“Now that’s a funny story. Well, it wasn’t very funny at the time…”

**_Bill_ **

_ In the world I came from, a place I affectionately call the Nightmare Realm, there are 13 rulers. Each one has their own area they control. I worked for Erra, who happened to control one area. Hes was- and still is- super powerful and had an area of his own. _

_ I was coming back from doing something for my boss when I happened to walk past Hes’ domain. Now, going into the domain of a demon you don’t work for or aren’t allies with is a very bad idea. It’s one of the dumbest things you can do, trust me. _

_ Which is why when I had the brilliant idea to play a prank on Hes to mess with him- I’d never met him at that point, but had heard he was super uptight- I should have just turned the other way and gone back home. But I didn’t. I did something stupid- I put pixie dust in his bedsheets- and got caught by the guards. I was being chased by the guards when Hes appeared. _

_ “Who’s this?” he asked. Also, Hes’s demon form is seriously hot, Mabel. Even more than his human form. And what you’re seeing every day isn’t even his real human form. _

_ The guards had said I was a demon who was caught putting pixie dust in Hes’ bedsheets and were trying to apprehend me to punish.  _

_ “I’m gonna guess you work for Erra, right?” Hes said. I just nodded. _

_ “How about we do things this way- you come over once a day to talk to me and not cause trouble, and we’ll call it even?” _

**Mabel**

Bill shook his head. “Hes wasn’t like any other demon I’d ever met. He was a decent guy, actually cared about people. And he was kinda lonely, I guess his servants weren’t that interesting to talk to. Don’t know how he is now, really.”

“He’s a good person,” I said.

“I bet.”

**Dipper**

The other boxes were filled with more photos. One of them had my parents. And that’s when I snapped. I’d been holding back for weeks, trying so hard not to cry, trying not to think about them, trying not to miss them as much as I did.

But my dad, I looked just like him. He was a few years older than I was now in that picture, having swept my mom down low into a kiss. It probably wasn’t long after they got married. And it looked like they were near a cliff, standing in front of a silver convertible. They looked so happy, so warm, so  _ alive,  _ it made my heart hurt knowing I’d never see them like that in real life ever again. Which turned to realizing that I’d also never see my mom kiss my dad when he came home from work again, or see my dad jump up and yell in excitement during family game night, or hear my mom hum her favorite tune. I’d never see my mom’s eyes light up when Mabel gives her some crazy surprise, or hear my dad’s loud laugh. They wouldn’t be there when Mabel and I finish high school, or college, or be there at our weddings. This is what I had been trying to avoid since the funeral and it all washed over me at once. 

I actually let myself cry, for the first time since they’d died. Hes was next to me the entire time, comforting me, telling me it was going to be okay. “Everyone I ever cared about’s left me, except Mabel,” I whispered shakily. “What if some day I’m all alone?”

“Don’t worry, Dipper,” Hes murmured. “I’m never going to leave you, I promise. If I do vanish, I won’t be gone for long.”

When I calmed down he looked at me very seriously and said, “The boxes are floating.”

I looked around and realized he was telling the truth. “Why are they doing that? Did you do that?”

“Nope! You did!”

“Wait. What?”

“Yep. That was all you, kid. It means you have magic!”

**Mabel**

“Okay. Any more questions?” Bill asked. The room was almost clean at this point.

“Yeah. What did you mean when you said most of your powers were sealed up tight?”

Bill sighed. “Erra had some pretty big plans for this world, but he was destroyed before he could. I tried to continue his work, which is what got me and Hes into that big fight in the first place. Anyways, someone else wanted all the ‘glory,’ so they trapped me in this meatsack and sealed up almost all of my powers.”

**Bill**

I wound up in the Mindscape when I went to sleep that night. Which is strange, since the Mindscape had been blocked from me since I was trapped in this dumb meatsack, Although, someone else with access to the Mindscape could’ve dragged me here. Sadly, there was only one other being I knew of that could do that.

“That’s right, Willie!” an annoyingly chipper voice shouted, making me wince at the sheer volume. It was like someone just screamed in my ear. I moaned, my suspicions confirmed.

“What do you want, Altalune?” I groaned. “Isn’t trapping me in a human body and sealing away 90% of my powers enough for you?”

She popped into the Mindscape in her celestial form, a dark purple hexagram covered in silver flecks and having two eyes. “Aww, I’m not here to mess with you, little Willie! Well, not too much.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, since you’re officially human, being as it’s been exactly one year-”

“Wait. You just said I was officially human?! I thought I still retained my demon status!”

The annoying dream demon sighed. “Don’t you pay attention to the rules? If a demon cannot return to their true form for one year, then they lose their demonary title. Hes still retains his title, since he can return to his demon form whenever he wants. Though I’ve never seen him use it that much since he lost his memories.”

“I hate you. I really, really hate you.”

“I know~!” She said, annoyingly chipper as ever. “As I was saying, since you’re an official human now, that means I can make a deal with you!”

“Why would I want to make a deal with  _ you? _ ” I asked. “You’re the one that stole my powers!”

“Pssh, I didn’t  _ steal  _ them,” she said, waving her hand. A glowing blue orb appeared in front of her. “See, it’s right here! And I’m willing to give it back to you, in exchange for something.”

“What sort of something?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know.

“Oh, not much. Just a certain person’s soul.”

Since I was no longer technically a demon that meant I couldn’t make a deal for someone’s soul. Which meant I’d have to trap them in a special circle and kill them. “Whose soul?” I asked, curious.

“Dipper Pines.”

My eyes widened. “Hell no! I would never do that!”

The star chuckled. “Your funeral. Although if you ever change your mind, all you need to do is get Dipper’s soul for me and I’ll instantly give you what you want.”

**Hes**

I woke up in a forest void of color. I’ve only been in there exactly six times that I remember, and it always means one thing- a dream demon.

As expected, a certain purple six-pointed star appeared in front of me mere seconds after I’d arrived. “No,” I said before she could say anything.

“Aww, you didn’t even let me say anything!” the demoness whined.

“That’s because you’re likely going to ask the same thing you always do. And the answer is no,” I said, turning away from her.

She appeared in front of me again. “But why? I’m the one getting the short end of the stick here! I mean, you’d get your memories back, more power, an even better status than you’d had before!”

“Yeah, and the cost is what I say no to.”

She looked as defeated as a shape could possibly look. “The end is nigh, brother. And there’s not much you can do to stop it. My offer will stand until it happens.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa~ Hi guys! Woohoo, it's the last chapter for June! Onto July!
> 
> Alec- But before we do that chapter, we have a challenge for you guys. The first person to figure out who Hes' mother is gets to chose one thing for us to write- either they get to create a scenario for the characters in the Starcrossed AU to deal with (and you guys get to choose which characters we play with) or a super cool preview of what's to come.
> 
> Alyssa~ Don't worry, we're gonna give you guys hints!
> 
> Hint #1: Hes' mother is a goddess. His father is a demon.
> 
> Hint#2: She belongs to the Mesopotamian pantheon, and there is a male god in that pantheon with the same attributes.
> 
> Hint #2: She has something to do with the night sky
> 
> Okay, go!


	10. July 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper really needs to read what a spell does before he casts it.

**Dipper**

So, apparently, I wasn’t a werecat. Thank goodness. I really wasn’t a fan of the idea of turning into a “cute little kitty cat” every full moon. Talk about a blow to my manhood. Which Stan was constantly teasing me about my apparent lack of. So what if I didn’t have quite as much body hair as he did when he was fifteen?

Anyways, Hes started teaching me magic. I’d gotten the hang of the basics, but Hes wanted me to master what I had learned (even more than I already had) before teaching me more. I was confident I could learn it on my own, which is why I was skimming through some of the spellbooks that were hidden under Hes’ bed, looking for a new spell to try out.

That’s when one of the spells stood out to me- “I created this spell as a way to try to understand Bill Cipher. Would not recommend performing this spell more than once in anyone’s lifetime.”

I figured that sounded like a pretty powerful spell. I mean, both Hes and Bill had said that Bill was (and probably still is) super powerful. Any spell to understand/emulate the dream demon would have to be super powerful. In other words, it was perfect.

So I recited the spell:

“Somnus, somno,

Nec sopor somnia

Eo in mentem alterius

Omnes invisibiles circa me

Omnes, qui audierint mutum me

Prius vocationem, et in oscula

Excitare”

Sadly, nothing happened. I wondered if maybe I did something wrong, or maybe the spell was just too powerful for me. So I started sifting through spells when the door to our room slammed open. 

“Pine Tree, guess what?! I get to-”

In that moment, it felt like my soul was being ripped out of it’s body- which it was, I later discovered. I let out a gasp of pain before everything went black.

**Bill**

“C’mon Amber,” I begged. “Pleasepleaseplease? I’ll clean every surface in your store, feed the hydra in your basement, water your lyreroses, walk-”

“Okay, fine,” Amber groaned. “I’ll let you help me set off fireworks at the Fourth of July picnic. And not because of what you’re offering. You’re a sadistic masochist who would probably enjoy all of it, minus the cleaning. You know what? I think I’ll take you up on that first offer. You can clean my store for me.” The fire spirit looked over at Shooting Star. “Hey, Mabel. Do you wanna help me set off fireworks tomorrow?”

“YES! OHMYGOD that will be so much fun!” Shooting Star shrieked. 

I grinned. I had to go tell Pine Tree! I started to run out the door. “Meet us back here at five tomorrow!” Amber shouted.

“Got it!”

I blew through town and through the Mystery Shack, ignoring Hes as I ran up to Pine Tree’s room. Well, he shared it with Hes and used to share it with Shooting Star (although not any more now that she had her own room). I threw open the door. “Pine Tree, guess what?! I get to-” I started to say. Pine Tree let out a gasp, but it was of pain and not surprise, before slumping to the ground. 

“Pine Tree?” I ran over to the boy. He was alive, but unconscious. “Thank chaos,” I breathed. “You’re okay.”

I glanced at the open binder in Pine Tree’s lap. It was kind of on the old side, and the words were in Hes’ handwriting. I picked it up. It was one of Hes’ grimoires. Great. While Hes and I were both great at magic, Hes’ magic tended to be on the darker, more dangerous side. Then again, his dad  _ was  _ a shadow demon and his mom was a goddess of the heavens- and chief of the Akkadian gods. And in the demon realm he always had an army. A big, well-trained, powerful army. My style of magic was mischievous, chaotic, and somewhat destructive, but Hes was one that could wipe out entire continents with a single blow (hence the lost country of Atlantis, although that really was an accident). 

In other words, if Hes creates a spell, then humans really shouldn’t use it unless Hes knows it won’t kill them. 

“HES!”

**Dipper**

I woke up to the sound of Bill and Hes arguing. That wasn’t new. They were arguing about me, which also wasn’t new. I was sitting down, leaning against the bed and next to Bill, I realized when I opened my eyes.

“Look, the kid has magic and it manifested,” Hes scoffed. “So of course I’m going to do teach him. It’s not like  _ you  _ could, you’re even weaker than most magical mortals.”

For some odd reason, a wave of hurt and a bit of anger washed over me. I didn’t even know what was going on, exactly, or why I felt that.

“Well, just because he can use magic doesn’t mean you should leave your grimoires lying around for him to use!” Bill shouted. “One of your spells could’ve killed him!”

“But I’m okay,” I said. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m okay.”

“But he’s not dead, at least,” Hes said. “We still don’t know what spell he used, but he’s not dead.” Umm, did they not hear me?

I stood up. “Helloo?” I said. 

Bill shrugged. “And that’s where the issue is. Do you have any idea what spell he might have used?”

“C’mon, guys. Quit ignoring me!” I begged.  I reached out to grab Bill’s hand, but my hand passed through his. I happened to look behind me, and saw my unconscious body lying under the sheets.I gasped. “What… what did I do? What’s going on?!” 

“Not at the moment. But I know what went into that grimoire, and I think we’ll get a better idea of what the spell was when Mabel gets home from work.”

**Bill**

Hes sat down on the couch while waiting for Shooting Star to get off work. I paced. We weren’t arguing at the moment, which was kind of nice, but it was still a tense, angry silence.

Not only was I worried about what could’ve happened to Pine Tree, I was still stewing over what Hes had said. He  _ knew  _ exactly how weak I was now. He knew how pitiful, how pathetic I was. I wondered if he knew I didn’t even have access to the Mindscape, my home, any more. 

Before I could wallow in self-pity any longer, Shooting Star burst in. “HEY GUYS!” she shouted. “Amber’s gonna show me how to make potions soon!” She took a look at us. “Is something wrong? Or are you guys getting over another argument?”

“Pine Tree found one of Hes’ grimoires,” I said. “We don’t know what spell he used, but Pine Tree is unconscious.”

Shooting Star’s jaw dropped. “What? Why aren’t you guys trying to figure it out?!” She shouted. “You have to save him!”

“We could use your help for that,” Hes said. “While most people can learn to see auras, most of us can’t see souls.”

“Okaaayyyyy…”

“Look, most of my spells in that grimoire have to do with the soul. We need you to take a look at Dipper, and what you see will help us figure out what he did.”

“Got it.”

Shooting Star stood in front of Pine Tree’s bed. She took a deep breath before staring intently at her twin. Most humans wouldn’t be able to see it, but she was covered in a pale white glow. 

The glow faded. Shooting Star took a shaky breath before looking at us. “There’s nothing there. His soul, it’s not there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dum dum dum...
> 
> Alyssa: HI GUYS!
> 
> Alec: Hello, everyone. New month in reality, new Month Arc. Meanwhile, Alyssa is bored out of her mind at work and an eleven-year-old cousin is at home trying to drive us insane. Ah well.


	11. July 3-4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone works on breaking the spell on Dipper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, two chapters in one day! We're on a roll people! This is what happens when you work at a call center and no one calls.

**Dipper**

“There’s nothing there. His soul, it’s not there.”

It took about five seconds to sink in before Bill shouted, “WHAT?! But, he’s breathing! How is his soul not there?!”

Hes snorted. “There are multiple parts of a soul, Bill. You’re thinking of the part that is necessary for life to exist in a body. What Mabel sees is more or less a person’s consciousness.”

Yeah, and it’s standing right next to you. Well, that makes sense why no one can see or hear me.

“Okay, so Dipper’s having some kind of out-of-body experience?” Mabel asked.  “Is that even safe?”

Hes shrugged. “So long as he’s not gone for too long.”

“Then we need to get him back as soon as possible!” Bill said.

Hes was already flipping through the spellbook I’d used. “There are eight spells in this grimoire that have the effect of pulling a soul out of it’s body. We should all grab a few spells so we can figure out which one Dipper used.”

“How do we do that?”

“Each spell is a bit different. Some will have signs that will allow us to decide if it could be the one, and we’ll also have to compare Dipper’s magical signature to what the spell should look like.”

“Let’s get started,” Bill said.

**Bill**

“Hes, you REALLY need to learn how to organize your notes,” I said a few hours later.  The sun had vanished long ago, and we were only through three of the eight possible spells. “It’s almost impossible to figure anything out! No wonder Pine Tree ended up like this!”

Hes’ eye twitched. “This grimoire was very private. I didn’t plan on anyone ever seeing it.”

“This grimoire?” Shooting Star asked. “Do you have others?”

He nodded. “Yes. I have my main grimoire, which is what I’ve been using to teach Dipper magic. I don’t even know how he got his hands on this one. All of the spells in this one have to do with the soul.”

“Why would you even need all of those, then?” I asked snarkily.

The half-god sighed. “What else would one do, if they woke up one day in a human body with absolutely no memories and learned that they were half-demon, half-god, and the two demons who were offering to help regain their memories could not be trusted in any way?”

I shifted uncomfortably. “Whatever.”

**Dipper**

It was a long night. Everyone was up until sunrise- apparently souls don’t need sleep, so I was fine, but everyone else had to themselves awake with copious amounts of coffee or Mabel Juice. Mabel was the only one who drank the latter, but she sure did drink a lot of it.

The sun was just starting to poke over the horizon when Hes finally said, “Okay, we’re down to two spells. Let’s see which one matches.” He was holding the sheet for the spell I used, and one for some other spell. I wanted to shout at him that the one in his left hand was the right one, but he couldn’t hear me. 

Still, it only took them maybe five more minutes to figure out which was the right one. Bill looked at the paper. “I created this spell in an attempt to understand Bill Cipher,” he read. “Awww, I’m touched, Hes.”

Hes threw a heavy, leather bound book at Bill’s head. “Idiot. I was trying to figure out if you had any weaknesses. Which you do.”

“DO NOT!”

“Do too. You have several. One being your soulmate.”

“Shut up!”

“Hey! Back on track, you too!” Mabel shouted.  She looked at Hes. “How do we undo the spell?”

“I don’t remember.” He paused. “But I know someone who does.”

**Bill**

“How do you forget something like that?” I grumbled. 

“Because ever since my memories have come back, a lot of things have been a big, jumbled mess.” We walked into Amber’s shop, where Amber was struggling with a giant box of fireworks. I couldn’t help but grin slightly at the thought of setting some of those off later tonight.

“Amber, we could use some help with something,” Hes said.

She looked at him. “Who got themselves into trouble this time?”

“Dipper. He cast one of my old spells and we need your help figuring out how to undo it.”

“Which spell?”

I handed her the sheet of paper. She raised an eyebrow. “This spell? I remember it. Wendy had a huge crush on you back then, Hes, and since the way to break the spell was with a kiss-”

I was out the door before Amber could finish telling her story.

**Dipper**

I followed Bill all the way back to the Mystery Shack. He ran the entire way, only stopping to catch his breath when he was in front of my bedroom door. 

“You can do this, Bill,” he muttered. “Dipper’s unconscious, so it’s not like he’ll care if you’re a bad kisser or something.” He took a deep breath before pushing open the door. He walked over to the other side, hesitantly.

I noticed something in the room with us. A dark purple six-pointed star was staring at me with her two, slit-like eyes. “Dipper Pines.”

“Who are you?”

The creature chuckled. “It doesn’t matter. Just know that one day very soon, your soul will be mine to use and abuse.”

At that moment, Bill kissed me on the lips. I could feel my soul being forcibly dragged into my body at that moment, and could feel his kiss. It was a chaste kiss, sweet and hesitant, as though he was afraid it would break me.

When I opened my eyes, Bill was dashing out of my bedroom.

************

I met up with everyone at the picnic, which had just started. Pacifica was giving some high-and-mighty speech to the town, Mabel and Bill were with Amber dealing with a box of fireworks, Dylan was hiding under a tree, and Hes was looking for me.

“There you are,” Hes said, scaring me out of my skin. “Bill said he broke the spell and you two got separated in the crowd. How are you feeling?”

I decided not to call Bill out on his lie, since it would just make Hes mad at Bill again. “I’m feeling fine.” I looked around. “There sure are a lot of people here, for a small town in the middle of nowhere.”

Hes chuckled. “Gravity Falls’ official population is small, sure, but they don’t count a lot of the supernaturals- mainly because they don’t want to be counted.”

“Oh.”

We walked around. Toby Determined was interviewing people for his article on the event, Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland were using a spedometer to see how fast the deputy could eat a pile of hot dogs, and everyone was just laughing and having fun. There weren’t any tourists today, so that meant no one had to hide what they were. 

And the range of creatures were amazing. There were nature spirits like nymphs and satyrs, merfolk who’d used potions or amulets to walk on land, manotaurs and centaurs, and creatures I’d never even seen or heard of. It was incredible.

The sun went down and everyone sat in the grass to watch the fireworks show, which apparently was being put on by Amber, Mabel and Bill. Hes and I got front-row seats as we were watching the three set off the fireworks.

Thankfully, Amber managed to control the other two so it was an actual show and not a chaotic lighting of pyrotechnics.

“I AM THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!” Mabel shouted as she sent a roman candle flying into the air.

I laughed at my sister’s antics, meeting Bill’s gaze. He instantly blushed and looked away. I wondered how he felt about the kiss. I’d have to guess that he probably wasn’t against it, as he was the first one to run over to break the spell. I wondered if it was maybe his first kiss, then. According to Mabel my first kiss was when I accidentally kissed this exchange student named Mermando. It was completely on accident, and neither of us had feelings for each other (he actually had a crush on Mabel at the time) so I don’t count it. Although I do count kissing Krystal Brooks in the eighth grade, even though it was just so she could “practice” for when she kissed her crush (she was my crush at the time).

Yeah, it was probably his first kiss. After all, Hes did say that Bill wasn’t very fond of taking on a human form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec: Hello again.
> 
> Alyssa: We have an announcement! We will be creating a music video for the Starcrossed AU, which will end up on Tumblr/YouTube! 
> 
> Alec: For the sake of spoilers and confusion, we won't post it until at least after the July Arc, or whenever it's done, whichever comes last. You can get updates on our Gravity Falls AU blog:
> 
> [ Starfall AUs ](http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/)


	12. July 8-9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill and Dipper go camping.... well, more like they go into the woods to stop some poachers from catching a magical creature to be sold on the black market and end up spending the night in the woods.

**Dipper**

“Go! Go! Go!” Mabel and I were cheering. We were seeing how many cans of Pitt Cola Soos could drink before he threw up. We were currently at 23. 

Hes was manning the cash register and Bill was leaning against the counter, reading some Latin text. It was weird seeing those two standing within ten feet of each other without getting into an argument. Ever since the incident last week they’ve been a bit more civil, at least when we’re around, although they still hate each other more than anything and still get into multiple arguments whenever they’re around each other. 

Dylan and Amber burst into the Shack at the same time. Amber tripped over Dylan as they were both entering, landing on top of the vampire. Hes helped Amber up and Mabel helped Dylan.

“What’s wrong?” Hes asked. 

Dylan shrugged. “Spotted a couple hunters in the woods looking for the amphisbaena. Figured you’d want to know.”

“There’s something wrong with the barrier,” Amber said. Hes had explained to us that there was a magical barrier around Gravity Falls that protected it’s residents from interdimensional invasions and other dangerous occurrences. It also was the reason so many supernaturals wound up in Gravity Falls in the first place, as a side effect of the barrier was that large amounts of magic pooled inside of it.

Hes groaned. “The barrier’s super important, so I have to take care of that first.” He sighed. “But those hunters might have caught the amphisbaena before I’m done, or caught something else.”

“Why don’t you send Bill and Dipper to take care of the hunters while you deal with the barrier?” Amber suggested. “I’m sure they can handle a few humans.”

“Sounds like the best idea.” Hes looked at me. “You remember the mind-wipe spell I taught you?” Hes and I were the only ones who knew it, the Society of the Blind Eye took care of the other issues we couldn’t deal with. I nodded. Hes turned to look at Bill. “If you hurt Dipper, I will kill you,” he said sternly. Bill gulped, nodding.

“Good!” Hes turned to look at Amber. “Where’s the source of the issue?”

Amber pointed up. “How are your wings? I know the last time-”

Hes waved her off. “They’re fine. It’s been six months.”

“You have wings?” I asked. 

Hes nodded, grinning. “Wanna see?”

I followed him outside. “We’re gonna need to be as close to our true forms as possible to deal with any barrier problems,” Hes explained as Amber moved to stand near him.

Lighted circles started to form on the ground around the pair, filled with strange symbols and various shapes. The glow got brighter and brighter until we had to shield our eyes. When we could see again,  Amber looked like she was made entirely out of fire (with no visible fuel source) and Hes was about a foot taller and had massive black bird wings.

Amber lifted into the air with ease, while Hes started to flap his wings. Within seconds they were both high in the sky. “Show-offs,” Bill huffed.

“Aww, someone’s jealous!” Mabel teased. 

“Am not!”  Bill looked at me. “Let’s get ready to go, Pine Tree.”

We made our way into the woods a few minutes later after we packed and I grabbed a hat from the gift shop to hide my ears. It was a white cap with a blue pine tree- Bill had just grabbed it and shoved it on my head, sayin, “A pine tree for Pine Tree!” 

Hes had been teaching me to scry for a while (apparently it was something Seers were usually good at), and he’d shown me an actual scrying spell yesterday that would be really useful for finding the amphisbaena. Sometimes I wondered if I wasn’t the only one in the house that could see the future.

*Spell goes here*

What appeared in front of us would not only lead us to what we were looking for, but would also give us an idea of how far away our quarry would be. In front of us was an eagle. “We’ll have to travel for a while,” Bill noted.

“You know about this spell?” I asked, surprised.

Bill nodded. “Hes’ used it for centuries.” He looked back at the eagle, which was patiently waiting for us to follow it. “Come on, let’s go.”

So we followed the eagle deep into the woods. Part of it we talked, part of it was spent with Bill pointing out the occasional odd creature or plant and explaining what it was, but most of it was spent in comfortable silence.

“What’s an amphisbaena?” was one of the first questions I asked.

Bill groaned. “You’re searching for something and you don’t even know what it is? Seriously? Figures Hes would do something like that.” He sighed. “An amphisbaena is a lizard with a head at each end of it’s body. No one’s really sure which is the front end and the back end, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. They have pretty powerful abilities of regeneration, and have a bunch of different semi-magical uses like attracting the opposite gender or ensuring a safe pregnancy.  They’re also really, really rare. Gravity Falls has one, and there are only a handful others in the world.”

“Wow. I wonder if the Journal has anything to say about that.” I checked my backpack. “Oh, man! I left it at home!”

“Too late to go back and get it!” Bill said cheerily. “Besides, why would you need that dumb book when you have me!”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever you say, Bill.” He just laughed.

*************

Eventually we stopped to make camp for the night. BIll assured me that, yes, the amphisbaena was just like any other reptile and would rest while it was cool out.

“Soo… how long have you and Hes been mad at each other?” I asked.

“A few thousand years,” Bill said simply.

“Oh. Umm, I heard something about you losing your power. Was Hes… part of that?”

“No. But his sister was.”

“Hes has a sister?”

“Yeah. She’s a full-blooded demon, Hes’ half sister on his dad’s side. She’s a total psychopath, that woman. He also has three demigod half-brothers on his mom’s side- Neti, Mizar, and Aahmes.  They’re pretty decent, although the form of immortality they have can be a bit annoying sometimes.”

“Are there different types of immortality?” I asked, curious.

“Yeah, there are three. The first type is the most obvious one- you don’t age, you heal super fast, and nothing can kill you. That’s the type of immortality Hes has, and I  _ would  _ have at full power. Then there’s eternal youth, which is what spirits like Amber have, which means they don’t age after they reach maturity and are a lot harder to kill than most people- although they can still be killed. Then there’s the type of immortality Hes’ brothers have, which only happens to a few immortal-human hybrids- continuous reincarnation. After they die they are born again within ten years after their death. Most times they don’t remember anything about their past lives, but they can if they happen to meet an immortal who remembers them and decides to help them remember, which is why it gets annoying.”

  
I nodded. “Where are his brothers now?”

Bill shrugged. “All over the US, although Aahmes is here in Gravity Falls. He doesn’t know anything yet, but I’m sure once either I get my powers back or Hes gets his memories back he’ll get to remember his past lives.”

“Wow. That would be really cool, having a demigod around.”

Bill nodded.

*************

We found the amphisbaena the next morning. It had been caught in one of the hunters’ traps. Thankfully, it wasn’t injured, just stuck in a cage. 

I got it out, holding the strange creature in my arms- we were going to keep it safe until we took care of the hunters. “Well, step one is done.”

We could hear people moving through the woods. They were relatively close. “Onto step two,” Bill said.

We decided to wait for the hunters to arrive, since they were likely coming to check their traps. They came into view a few minutes later, a three guys in their mid twenties- a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette- the blonde carrying a rifle.

“Looks like someone found our prize for us,” the redhead said. “How much do you want for it?”

“We’re not giving it to you!” I said. “It’s an endangered species!”

The brunette snorted. “Betcha he’s one of those animal rights freaks.” He grinned. “Well, if you won’t give it to us, I suppose we’ll have to take it.” He lunged at me, a knife drawn. 

I jumped out of the way, the redhead having moved into my path. Bill shot him out of the way with a wave of his magic.

The three stared at Bill for a second before the brunette grinned. “Guess my mother was right, there are monsters wearing a human’s skin. Wonder how much I can sell your skin for? Or your hair? Maybe those eyes of yours, they’re like molten gold and I bet they’d be worth a pretty penny.”

“You’re disgusting,” I said, horrified. 

The brunette laughed. “Maybe. Hmm, guess I’ll have to deal with you, too. After all, you know too much.”

I didn’t notice the blonde aiming his rifle at me until it was too late. “Pine Tree, look out!” Bill shouted. I winced, closing my eyes.

I expected to feel pain, to see blood everywhere when I opened my eyes, or to just die. None of those happened. Instead, I opened my eyes to see Bill standing in front of me. He collapsed, blood pouring from his left eye. After that, everything went black.

************

I woke up in the Mystery Shack a few hours later, feeling like I’d been run over by a semi. I groaned, opening my eyes. “You’re awake,” Hes noted.

“What happened?” I asked, rolling over to look at him. 

He shrugged. “I dunno. All I know is that the hunters you found were knocked out, Bill is now going to be blind in his left eye, and the hunters were handed over to the proper authorities. They’d apparently been selling parts of magical animals on the black market since middle school, although we still wiped their memory of Gravity Falls.”

“That’s good. Is Bill gonna be okay?”

“Bill? He’s tough, even in a human body. Losing an eye is pretty normal for him.”

“Oh.”

**Bill**

I woke up in the Mindscape again, this time to Altalune’s laughter. She was almost doubled over at this point.

“What’s so funny?” I growled.

She wiped away a nonexistent tear. “You, that’s what’s so funny. Not only did you lose your eye like every single time you’re human, but your precious ‘Pine Tree’ had to rescue you! You’re so weak and pathetic it’s hilarious!”

“What did you bring me here for?” I demanded. “I don’t think it’s just to laugh at me.”

“Straight to the point as usual. I’m here because I own you, Bill. Your soul is mine, until proven otherwise. And I’m here to break in my new toy. Unless, of course, you’re willing to give me the Pines boy’s soul, and then I’ll happily set you free.”

“Over my dead body!” I snarled. Before I could react, chains wrapped themselves around my limbs, lifting me into the air and holding me in place. 

Altalune floated in front of my face. “As you wish.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec: Hello.
> 
> Alyssa: I'm gonna die. 
> 
> Alec: No, you're not.
> 
> Alyssa: Yes, I am! Our mom and sister are going to be IN OUR HOUSE next week.
> 
> Alec: We're going to be at work. 
> 
> Alyssa: I'm locking the door to my bedroom


	13. July 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel, Dipper and Amber deal with a portal in Dylan's basement, and Bill and Hes have a much-needed conversation

**Mabel**

The potion exploded in my face, splattering the glowing purple liquid everywhere. I shrieked. “Why can’t I get a simple healing potion right?!” I groaned, faceplanting into the table.

“You’re not focused,” Amber said. “What’s troubling you?”

“Bill and Hes. They work great together, but they just won’t make up and be friends again! Even after everything they’ve done this summer! I mean, it’s only been a few weeks, but we’ve done a whole lot. “

Amber nodded. “It  _ is  _ pretty frustrating, isn’t it? To be honest, this is the nicest they’ve acted towards each other in millenia.” She paused, grinning. “Hey, Mabel, I think I know something that might work. Wanna know how to hex someone?”

“Hex? That doesn’t sound very nice,” I said. “Aren’t hexes like curses?”

Ambe waved her off. “Nah. Well, sort of. The hex only lasts until certain conditions are met, mainly the victim learning their ‘lesson.’ What I was thinking was that we could hex Bill and Hes to be unable to be more than ten feet away from each other until they talked things out and  _ sincerely  _ made up with each other.”

“Hmmm,” I mused. “It’s perfect!”

**Hes**

I woke up in an otherworldly amount of pain. It wasn’t a stabbing pain, more of a tug. As though my soul were trying to be ripped from this vessel. Which it wasn’t, thankfully. It just felt like it. BUt it still  _ hurt.  _ I ran a mental checklist. I hadn’t cast any strange spell recently, Dipper hadn’t cast any new spells recently that I knew of, I hadn’t eaten anything unusual, and the pixies had kept out of sight for the past few days. Which meant I was heading to  Omnium Gatherum to make Amber figure out what was wrong and tell me how to fix it. I happened to wake up Dipper on my way out, and he decided to come along.

Strangely enough, the pain slowly ebbed away as I entered Amber’s shop. It was gone the moment I heard Bill say, “Hey, the pain’s gone!”

“What are you doing here?” I growled when I saw him. It was too early to deal with this idiot.

“Woke up in a world of pain and came here to figure out what’s going on with this meatsack,” Bill said, gesturing at his body.

“Hey, the same thing happened to Hes this morning!” Dipper said.

Amber raised an eyebrow, giving us a look that said she was up to something. “Oh really? Mabel, why don’t you examine these two and tell me what you see?” She looked at us. “Mabel’s really been honing her skill. She’s a pretty quick learner.”

Mabel walked up to us. She stared at us with an intense gaze I’d only ever seen when she was analyzing Dipper’s aura. It felt weird to have such  a bubbly, energetic person turn such a serious look on me.

“They’re bound together,” she said simply.

“Like, a soul bond?” Dipper asked.

“Nah, it’s just physical.”

“How close?” I asked. I wanted to know how far away I could be. I hoped it was a mile or more, but somehow I felt that wouldn’t be the case.

“Pretty close. Like, ten, twenty feet at best.”

“WHAt?!” Bill shouted, making me cover my ears at the volume and pitch. I’m surprised Amber’s windows didn’t shatter. “You guys have to fix this!”

“We can-” Dipper started to say, but then Dylan crashed into view.

“Pines, what do you know about ghosts?”

**Dipper**

I blinked. “Ghosts?”

Dylan nodded. “Ghosts, as in tortured souls that stayed behind and refused to pass on after they kicked the bucket and need to just. Let. It. go,” he said.

“Like the song?” Bill asked, grinning. 

Dylan glared at him. Which wasn’t unusual, since he glared at just about everyone and everything. “If you sing that song I will suck you dry, Cipher,” he growled.

“I think the journal has some stuff on ghosts,” I said, trying to keep at least two of my friends from trying to kill each other. I’d pretty much given up on Bill and Hes at this point.

“Does it tell you how to get rid of them? I think my basement is some sort of portal to the Underworld or something,” Dylan said.

“Oooh, those are rare,” Amber said.

“I can try to get rid of it,” I said, not quite sure.

“I’m coming!” Amber said. “You too, Mabel. This will be a good educational experience for you.”

“What about fixing us?!” Bill whined.

“I don’t think magic can fix  _ that, _ ” Dylan commented, gesturing at Bill’s body. 

Bill opened his mouth to protest, but Amber stopped him by saying, “You two stay here. I’m closing the shop for today, but I’ll need someone to keep an eye on things while I’m out. We’ll work on your problem when we get back.”

*************

“Are you sure that was a good idea?” I asked Amber while we walked to Dylan’s house.

“Those two need to work out their issues,” Amber said. “And being stuck together and alone is the perfect time for that. Also, they both know I’ll hang them by their toenails from the ceiling if they break anything in my shop.”

“Good point.”

We arrived at Dylan’s house a few minutes later. “Doesn’t look like there’s a portal to hell,” I said.

“Underworld and hell are two very different things, trust me,” Amber said. “And most ghosts are almost impossible to see in broad daylight.”

“Makes sense.”

Mabel cracked her knuckles. “Let’s do this.”

**Hes**

Thankfully, I found one of Amber’s books to keep me occupied. Bill, on the other hand, seemed to simply want to annoy me to death.

He sighed, for the thousandth time.

“Could you stop that?” I asked.

“Stop what?”

“Sighing for no reason at all.”

“I have a reason. I’m bored.”

“Then find something to entertain yourself.”

“Let’s talk.”

“I have nothing I want to talk to you about.”

“Yeah you do. Like, why did you trap me in the Mindscape for a couple thousand years?!” he said, voice rising steadily. “Was it because I was dating Aahmes? Or just to stop me? You know it didn’t!”

**Dipper**

We stepped inside the house. It was eerily quiet, aside from the occasional inhuman shriek or creaky floorboard. “Your house wasn’t this creepy the last time I was here,” Ambe commented.

“There wasn’t a portal to the Underworld last time.”

The closer we got to the basement, the more active things got. We started to see shadows move out of the corners of our eyes, slowly getting closer and closer to us. When we opened the door to the basement a horde of ghosts flew out, howling and shrieking. Mabel and I both screamed, clutching each other tightly. Amber and Dylan looked into the inky black ahead of us, unimpressed. 

“They’re being dramatic,” Dylan commented.

“We  _ are  _ here to close the portal and get rid of them,” Amber pointed out.

“Very true.”

Amber grabbed Mabel’s hand and dragged her down first, me and Dylan following close behind.

Swirling around was a giant, gaping hole in the middle of the middle of the basement floor. It glowed a deep, muddy green.

“Yup, that’s a portal to the Underworld, all right. We’d better close this thing before something big comes out.”

A particularly unearthly noise came from inside the portal.

“We need to move. Now.”

**Hes**

I slammed the book down. “Do you want to know? Really?” I looked him in the eye, the former demon cowering slightly. “YOU WERE FUCKING DESTROYING YOURSELF, YOU IDIOT!” I sighed. “You were destroying yourself, just for a stupid plan, just to be more powerful. I couldn’t watch that. I tried to make you stop, but you wouldn’t listen to me. So we ended up fighting, and the only thing I could think of was to put you somewhere you couldn’t hurt yourself any more.”

I stood, walking away so I didn’t have to deal with Bill for a while, not caring that the bond made the distance hurt. Guess I didn’t have to worry, since he followed me anyways.

“Are you serious?” He asked.

I snorted. “What reason would I have to lie?”

“I mean it, Hes. The reason we fought was because I was hurting myself, and was too stupid to listen to you?”

I nodded.I expected a snide remark, a comment on how stupid I was, but I didn’t expect him to hug me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I realized how dangerous what I’d done had been a few hundred years ago, but I never thought that was what started this mess. Guess I’m really thick-headed.”

“You think?” We both snorted. “I’m sorry for leaving you alone for so long,” I said quietly. “I should’ve gone and talked to you about it sooner, and I don’t need most of my memories to know that I didn’t.”

“It’s okay.” He paused. “Hey, um, are we okay?”

“Yeah. We’re okay.”

**Dipper**

Thankfully, we managed to seal the portal relatively quickly. It took all four of us, an hour, and no one managed to figure out how it even happened in the first place.

Amber was grinning as we walked back. “What?” I asked.

“You’ll see~” she sang.

“Did it work? I bet it worked?” Mabel asked. Amber nodded. “That’s awesome! I wanted to lock them in a closet and not let them out until they fixed things, but it’s good that this worked!”

“What worked?” Dylan and I asked.

“Nothing!” Mabel said.

We walked in on one of the strangest things I had ever seen- Hes and Bill talking about something called a “multibear,” and laughing at some inside joke.

“Did you two hit your heads or something?” Dylan asked.

“No. We just dealt with some old issues,” Bill said.

“Did you break anything?” Amber asked.

“No,” Hes said. “We pretty much just talked.”

“Good.”

Amber and Mabel grinned at each other, high-fiving before Mabel said, “Hey, the bond’s gone.”

“Really? Awesome!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec- Hello everyone.
> 
> Alyssa~ Hi guys! Guess what? I ran into my little sister at the mall and we actually had a decent conversation where she wasn't nasty to me!
> 
> Alec- in addition, our household has been overrun with 2-5 our younger cousins at any given time. All of which are now hopelessly obsessed with Gravity Falls, courtesy of us. Amazingly, Alyssa had time to create a drawing of the three demons in the Starcrossed AU:  
> [ Our demons ](http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/post/148679398698/this-is-why-nothings-been-updated-but-its-done)
> 
> Alyssa~ speaking of that post, PLEASE FOLLOW OUR GRAVITY FALLS BLOG! Some of you have been invited as members, which means you can post stuff on it. Anyways, we only have three followers and I think two of them are porn blogs. We need more followers. Also, we're thinking of doing a one-shot smut involving this AU, let us know what you think!


	14. July 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill, Hes and Dipper go into the woods, and Bill and Dipper end up with some alone time.

**Dipper**

“I think we’re lost,” I said.

“We’re not lost,” Hes said. “I know exactly where we are, I just don’t know where the Journal’s talking about.”

“In other words, we’re lost,” Bill said, grinning as he reached over to grab the journal. “Man, this map makes no sense. I can see why.  Then again, you tend to get lost a lot, Hes. Like that one time on that alien planet. This map makes no sense.”

“Oh, you mean the time when you ticked off the locals and they tried to obliterate us?” Hes muttered. “I remember that time.”

According to the both of them, spending time with a person that played a major part in most of Hes’ life helped Hes get his memories back, way better than just letting things surface naturally. Apparently the natural way would’ve taken a few centuries, but Bill thinks that by hanging around Hes- and not trying to kill each other- they could restore all of Hes’ memories within a few months.

Hes, of course, decided he needed to help Bill in exchange, which is why we were in the forest in the first place. We were hunting for a particular crystal needed for a potion Hes was going to make. Mages and sorcerers used it to amplify their own magical power- generally for a powerful spell- and Hes and Bill figured they could use it to help Bill. It wouldn’t give him his full demonic power back- the seals on his arm would prevent that- but it would mix with the power he did have and make him something like a half-demon. Amber was very interested in their idea, and both she and Hes would be monitoring Bill closely throughout the entire course of him taking the potion. 

Well, if we could find the cave the crystal was in, that is. 

“Hey, I think I get it now!” Bill exclaimed. “Man, this map is  _ old _ .”

“Oh?”

Bill nodded. “Yeah. We’re right about here.”

“Seriously? Wow. That is an old map.”

“How do you guys know?” I asked.

They both turned to look at me. “The forest here changes a lot. The gnomes accidentally knock some pixie building over, a dragon goes a bit crazy, some new species decides to make this place their home, you get the idea,” Hes said. 

“Any map older than about three years is generally inaccurate enough to make anyone lost,” Bill added. “Especially Hes.”

“Hey, you’ve gotten lost before, too!”

“Hardly ever. All-seeing eye, remember?”

“Do you still have that? It would sooo be useful.”

Bill looked a bit sad, suddenly finding his shoes very interesting. “No.”

Hes and I placed a hand on his shoulders. “That’s why we’re here,” I said. “To get your powers back.”

We found the cave about ten minutes later. It was filled with softly glowing purple crystals. 

“Okay, we only really need maybe three large large crystals,” I said, looking at what we’d written down on one of the blank pages in the journal.

Hes grabbed one. Bill grabbed two more. But what he didn’t realize was that one of the crystals he’d grabbed was supporting a much, much larger crystal which then came tumbling down towards him. 

“Bill, look out!”  Hes shouted, shoving Bill out of harm’s way. Of course, that put him in the path of the crystal which hit him on the head pretty hard, knocking him out.

“Hes!” Bill cried, shaking him. 

“He’s unconscious,” I pointed out. “We should get him back to the Shack. I’m sure he’ll be fine, but we ought to get home.”

Bill nodded before attempting to pick Hes up. I’m about two inches shorter than Hes, and Bill is six inches shorter than me (Bill’s barely 5’4” and it drives him crazy). In addition to this, Bill couldn’t even pick me up, so it was funny to watch him try and lift Hes.

Due to years of having to pick Mabel up and carrying her to bed after she passes out from a Smile Dip high, it was pretty easy for me to pick up Hes to carry him back home with us. I’d have to set him down every so often to catch my breath, but it was still doable. 

“Speaking of home,” I said on our way back. “I’ve never been to yours. Where do you live?”

“Uh…,” Bill avoided looking at me. “In the woods.”

“So your house is in the woods? Cool! I’ll have to spend the night some time.”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Umm, I live in the woods, but not exactly in a house?”

“Bill… you need to live in a house. What happens when it rains?”

“Uhh, fluid leaks from my nose and my throat hurts and I spend as much time in Amber’s shop as possible.”

I groaned, about to say something about how he obviously wasn’t taking care of himself, when I heard music.  “What on earth?”

Bill grinned. “Let’s check it out.”

We followed the music to a clearing where a group of people were dancing. They were of all ages, and the clearing was bathed in a light green glow.

“What’s going on?”

“Remember when Hes had to go take care of the barrier? Well, it was damaged. Hes can fix it, but people like to help by offering up their own energies to contribute to the repairs.”

“That’s… that’s really cool.”

Bill turned to bow dramatically at me, extending his hand. “Shall we join them?”

**Bill**

My heart was beating so fast in my chest, I thought it would fall out. Pine Tree, I was going to be dancing with Pine Tree. And no one he knew was around, no Hes (well, he was there, but still unconscious), no Shooting Star, no Fez, no Amber, no Dylan, no Wendy. Just me and him. And well, everyone else who was dancing in the clearing, but they didn’t matter.

I really had no clue what to do, though, and was starting to wonder if this was a bad idea. But, Pine Tree seemed to be enjoying himself at least a little bit. Probably since no one was bothering him and he looked fucking amazing while dancing. Meanwhile, I was standing there kind of awkwardly, just watching him.

Pine Tree seemed to notice this. He grabbed my hand and dragged me into the mass of moving, sweaty bodies. “C’mon, this was your idea!”

“I was in the heat of the moment and forgot I didn’t know how to dance!”

“It’s easy! I’ll show you, come here!” He smiled at me, eyes on me alone, thoughts only about me.

Maybe this was a good idea, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa: Hi guys! We're going on a weeklong road trip, and have no idea whether or not we'll be able to update.
> 
> Alec: But if we can, we will.


	15. July 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel makes a potion that Hes and Dipper take on accident. Bill admits to having a crush on someone, and Mabel wants to get involved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa: Oh. My. God. This story is already 54 pages long and we're not even half done!

**Bill**

“Whatcha doing?” I asked, walking into Hes and Pine Tree’s bedroom, only to have a pillow thrown at my face.

“Knock first!” Pine Tree yelled. “I could’ve been naked!”

“Mmm, that would’ve been a nice show, huh, Hes?” I asked, only half-joking. I wound up with a book in my face this time, from Hes.

“Shut up, Bill,” Hes said, not even looking up from his computer. He smirked. “And, Dipper, I really don’t think Bill knows how to knock. Have you  _ seen  _ his entrances?”

“My entrances are amazing,” I said.  We all laughed. “Now, really, what are you guys up to?”

“Trying to catch up on my summer reading,” Pine Tree said. I did notice a pile of books next to him.

“Social media,” Hes said. “It’s amazing. All the videos and pictures of humans being idiots.”

“I gotta see this!” I said, jumping onto Hes’ bed.

“This is going to be hilarious,” Pine Tree said. “You should look up funny cat videos.” He set down his book and crawled onto the bed next to us.

It was really nice, just sitting on the bed with the two, reveling in the joys of the internet. It was almost enough to make me completely forget Altalune’s torture to the past few days. It had been getting worse. Still, in the back of my mind I’d see illusions of Hes or Dipper being killed, or of me being tormented in so many different ways. 

“I’m going to grab some popcorn,” Dipper announced, shaking me out of my thoughts. 

**Mabel**

“Okay, and the last ingredient,” I said, carefully letting two drops fall into the potion. It turned a pale pink. “Darn it!”

Amber laughed. “Hey, love potions aren’t easy, kid. And you’re close. This one would be good if our client was in love with his best friend and she didn’t feel the same way. He wants something to make her notice him, though, which is a bit trickier.”

“Is there any way to fix it? Y’know, make it do what I wanted it to do?”

“There is. But I’m going to let you try to fix it first. It’s a great learning opportunity.”

The potion slowly turned clear. “Uh, is that supposed to happen?” I asked.

“Of course. Love potions are almost always slipped into something else, it easier to disguise if it’s naturally clear.”

“That makes sense.”

Amber sighed, stretching. “Well, I think we’re done for today. Why don’t you take that potion home with you and try and figure it out?”

“Okay. See you tomorrow!”

I walked home and dumped the potion into a water bottle before sticking it in the fridge, which probably wasn’t the best idea. But I needed to think, and I was more focused on making some food to help me think. I would’ve called Dipper down to make me some of his amazing homemade mac and cheese- but he would’ve yelled at me for wanting to eat that so close to dinner- so I settled for grabbing some chocolate chip cookies to walk back to my room with.

**Dipper**

“Well, I should probably make dinner,” I said finally. I stood up, looking at Bill. “Are you staying or going home?” I’d talked him into moving into a place, he was officially working for Amber now and she’d somehow gotten him an apartment he could actually afford.

“I think I’ll stick around,” Bill said. 

“Great! Hes, could you set the table while I make dinner?” I asked.

Bill stood. “And I’ll take that as my cue to go hide in Mabel’s room until dinner’s ready!”

Hes and I both laughed, watching Bill leave the room, tripping on the way out. Hes got off the bed. “Well then, let’s get started.”

We wandered into the kitchen and got started on dinner. At some point Hes wandered over to the fridge and pulled out a water bottle. “I don’t really like the tap water cuz it tastes metallic, so I found a cool water bottle with a filter that I use all the time,” Hes explained before taking a swig out of the bottle. He held it out to me. “Want some?”

“Sure.” I took a drink. After I swallowed, something changed in my head. Just looking at Hes made my heart flutter- I always considered Hes attractive, but was he always this sexy?- and brought a small blush to my cheeks. My legs felt like pudding all of a sudden and I collapsed, Hes catching me in his arms.

**Mabel**

“OhmygodBillyouhaveacrushonsomeone!” I shrieked. “You have to tell me who it is!”

Bill shook his head. “No way!” I said. “You’ll tell them!” There’s no way she’d ever  _ not  _ tell them.

“Aww, come on!” I begged. “You can tell me! I won’t tell a soul, I promise!”

“No way, Mabel.”

“Guys, food’s ready!” Hes called from the kitchen. Bill took that as his chance to race out of my room and avoid the topic. But he wasn’t getting away from me that easy. I planned to corner him after dinner and get the truth out of him, but the universe seemed to have other plans.

Dinner was pretty normal, although Hes kept watching Dipper and giving him some strange look none of us could understand and Dipper seemed to react a lot more to whatever Hes did, and blushed a lot. But I didn’t  really think too much of it at the time.

We were all helping to clear the table- I was on dish duty, and the boys were putting things away. Dipper was carrying the milk to the fridge when he slipped on some soapy water that had spilled from the sink (what can I say? I get into my work). In one swift motion Hes caught Dipper, leaned in close, and kissed my brother on the lips.

“Awww, that’s so cute!” I gushed. “I wish I had a camera, this was a perfect scrapbookertunity!”

“Hes- you- Dipper- wha?” Bill seemed shocked and a bit- upset?

Dipper was completely out of it. I snapped my fingers in front of my face. “Earth to Dipper! You can come back from lala land now!”

He blinked, his fingers reaching to touch his lips. Hes still hadn’t let him go. “Did Hes just… kiss me?”

**Bill**

“What on earth possessed you to do that?!” I demanded.

Hes shrugged, pulling Dipper up and wrapping his arms around him. “I like Dipper. He’s cute and intelligent and a good kid. It seemed like a good a time as any.”

“You’re not acting like yourself,” I said. And he wasn’t. Well, not like his usual self. “Did you eat or drink anything odd today?”

“The only thing we had that no one else did was some water from the fridge,” Dipper said.

Mabel quickly grabbed a water bottle and held it up. “From here?” she asked.

Hes nodded. “Uh-huh. But it doesn’t really matter, does it, Dipper?” Hes asked, turning Dipper around to kiss him senseless.

Mabel dragged me out of the room before I could punch Hes’ lights out. “Bill, they drank a love potion,” she hissed at me.

“A love potion? Why was there a love potion in the fridge?!” 

“It seemed like a good idea at the time! I was working on a potion for Amber, but it didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. It was supposed to be a sort of “Notice Me” type of love potion, but it ended up as a “Falling Deeply in Love With Your Best Friend” sort.”

I groaned. “You have to fix this, Mabel. Please!”

We both poked our heads into the living room, where Hes and Dipper were cuddling on the couch, Dipper resting his head on Hes’ chest. “Yeah, he’s in love with Dipper, all right.” The last time Hes acted like this was when he fell in love with this one daughter of Athena. That was one crazy time.

“I don’t see why,” Mabel said. “It’s not hurting anyone.”

“It’s hurting _me_!” I hissed. “Dipper… I can’t… he’s in love with someone and it’s not even his choice! He should be able to chose who he gets to be with!”

Mabel’s eyes narrowed. “Are you concerned about Dipper just because he’s your best friend, or is it because he’s your crush?”

I blushed involuntarily and I hated it. Mabel giggled. “Oh my gosh! You and Dipper would be  _ so  _ cute together! We have to fix this! For true love!” She then grabbed my wrist and dragged me all the way to Amber’s house.

**Mabel**

Amber opened the door. “What’s up?”

“YouhavetohelpusDipperandHesdrankthelovepotionImadetodayandBillhasacrushonDipperandthey’dbesocutetogetherandwehavetoundothepotion!” I shouted.

Bill stared at me. “I have no clue what you just said.”

“I think I got it,” Amber said. “The love potion you created is going to be tricky to undo, since it takes already existing feelings and just slightly alters and amplifies them. If the antidote is done wrong, Dipper and Hes could end up hating each other, or not feeling anything at all towards each other.”

“That… that could be bad.” I looked at Bill. “Do you still think we should do this?”

He nodded. “We just need to be careful.”

We both looked at Amber, who clapped her hands together and said, “Alright, then! Let’s get moving! Onwards, my loyal servants!”

“We’re not your servants!” Bill and I both shouted. 

**Bill**

I pretty much just handed things to Amber and Mabel while they did all the work. “This needs to turn a creamy yellow when we’re done before it turns clear,” Amber explained. “Any other color and we’re in trouble.”

“Got it!”

The potion had to sit for exactly ten minutes before we could put in the final ingredient- dragon’s bane (it’s like wolfsbane, but not poisonous and really useful in potions, at least according to Amber). When we put in exactly five grams of dragon’s bane, the potion turned a creamy yellow color for a few seconds before dissolving and turning clear.

We all cheered. “Yes! We did it!”  Amber poured the potion into a vial and handed it to Mabel.

Mabel turned to me. “I’m going to give this to Dipper and Hes, but on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You have to let me help you get you and Dipper together.”

“Deal.”

We went home to find Dipper and Hes making out on the couch. Mabel giggled, and I tried not to gag. Mabel went into the kitchen to make hot chocolate for everyone (the potion was going to be in all of the cups, since the antidote wouldn’t do anything to me or Mabel.)

We all drank some of the hot chocolate. Hes and Dipper blinked rapidly, Dipper scooting off Hes’ lap.

“Were we just-” Dipper started to ask.

Hes nodded. “Yeah.”

“Did we really kiss?”

Mabel and I both nodded.

“Uh, I don’t know what came over me,” Hes said awkwardly. “I honestly see you as a little brother.”

“I’ll admit, you’re attractive,” Dipper said and I was afraid the antidote didn’t work. “But I’m not into you like that.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Glad that’s over.”

“Can we all pretend today never happened?” Hes asked.

“Sure.” Mabel leaned over and whispered into my ear, “Let Operation Matchmaker begin!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec: Hello guys. Last chapter got only one comment. One. Comment. Comments give us the drive to write. Without comments, you would not have any chapters from us. Please, we want to hear your reactions to things. 
> 
> Alyssa: SO COMMENT!
> 
> Alec: Also, for everyone with a tumblr account, please follow our gravity falls blog. You can find some posts   
> [here](http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/post/149239098143/august-20-2016-update)  
> [and here](http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/post/149238166048/sketch-dump-more-drawings-were-going-to-create)  
> [and here](http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/post/149237992143/so-ive-been-drawing-a-lot-it-helps-me-think)  
> [and here](http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/post/148679398698/this-is-why-nothings-been-updated-but-its-done)  
> It's a great way to know what's up with this fic, other fics, find fanart (or submit some), ask us any questions, submit answers to the challenges that will be at the end of each arc, etc. We only have five followers, and two of them are porn blogs. We would really love to hear from you guys.


	16. July 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was all because of that dumb plant...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aahmes appears!

**Dipper**

“Okay, now where are you?” I muttered. I was getting pretty tired of having to take pills every day to keep from going insane (which was apparently a common trait among Seers as- without something to stop it- they would see so much they wouldn’t be able to handle it, notably all the dark and disturbing possible futures), so when I saw an entry in the journal for a plant that I’d only need to ingest once a month for the same effect I was all for finding it.

The journal entry was right after the one on Seers. No no new information there, but it was towards the end and the author seemed so… detached. It wa like he didn’t even see Seers as human, which was really upsetting. I mean, I was a Seer and  I was probably just as human as the Author, right?

In any case, the plant should have been pretty easy to find. It was supposed to look like a deep blue rose with deep purple stems and leaves. It also warned to be very careful not to prick your finger on the thorns as they were coated in a toxin that would send you into a magically-induced coma. Which is why I was wearing a pair of rubber gloves I found at the Shack.

“Hey! It’s over here!” Bill called. He asked to come along on my “expedition,” as he called it.

When I saw the bush, I was very glad I thought of gloves. The thorns covered the stems. It would be almost impossible not to pick one of the flowers without touching at least one thorn. And I needed five. The first two went just fine, but when I was picking the third one I pricked my finger on a particularly sharp thorn. I had just enough time to gasp in pain before my world went black.

**Mabel**

The door slammed open. Hes, Dylan, Amber and Iooked up from the game of Monopoly we were playing (I was winning).  

“That was fast. Wait, why are you carrying Dipper? Is he hurt?” I asked, getting up.

“The Nightblood plant, Dipper, thorns,” Bill stammered, obviously very upset.

“He pricked his finger, didn’t he?” Hes asked. Bill nodded.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means Dipper’s now in a magically-induced coma, thanks to the toxins on the thorns,” Hes said. 

“How do we save him?” I demanded.

Dylan got up. “Well, there is a fruit that is the cousin to Nightblood that is an antidote to the toxin.”

“Great! Where do we find it?” I asked.

“There’s an orchard deep in the forest, surrounded by a high stone wall. Only those with vampire blood can enter it,” Hes explained.

“So, in other words, only Mabel and Dylan,” Amber pouted.

“Wait, what?” I was a human, right?

“Uhh, your mother was half-vampire half-furie,” Amber said. “Didn’t you know?”

“No…”

She started to shove Dylan at me. “Well, you two should go get that fruit to save your brother. Hes and Bill can protect Dipper, and I should probably go open my shop again.” She then left.

Dylan looked at me. “Shall we get going, then?”

**Dipper**

White. I was surrounded by nothing but white. I was the only source of color in this blank world. “Hello?”  I called. “Is anyone here?” It could be a vision. It didn’t feel like one, but you never know. I might as well see if there’s something I’m supposed to see. 

“Of course.” A voice whispered in my ear. I whipped around, but no one was there.

“Hello? Who’s there?” I asked, a bit nervous. I didn’t know what was in this strange place with me, if they were dangerous or not.

“I’m a friend, Dipper Pines.”

**Mabel**

We started the trip as soon as Dipper was put into bed. It was almost noon, and Dylan figured we’d get there by dusk. Which was a good thing, for some reason. I didn’t see why, the woods were dangerous  at night unless you were in a large group (or not human yourself), like the welcome party they held for us on our first day in Gravity Falls. 

I guessed it made sense then, since Dylan was a vampire. And I wasn’t human either, apparently.

“Hey, Dylan,” I said. He was way ahead of me. “Dylan! Dylan, slow down!” I called. 

He froze, turning to look back at me. “Huh?”

“You were moving way too fast for me to keep up. Slow down!”

“Oh. Sorry.” He stopped to wait for me. “I just want to get this done as quickly as possible.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Because the fruit grows on some pretty creepy trees,” Dylan said.

“Oh.”

**Bill**

“What do you think’s going on in his head?” I asked,

“Hmm. I don’t know. Hey, Bill?”

“Yeah?”

“Who’s ‘Aahmes?’”

I blinked. “Wait, you remember me, but not him?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“He was my boyfriend and  _ your  _ half-brother!”

“Oh. Then maybe he was that person I made a deal with after you were trapped in the Mindscape. He seemed to care about you a whole lot.”

“You made a deal with Aahmes?! What did he give you?!”

Hes shrugged. “His true form in exchange for a chance to see you again.”

I looked at him. “So that’s why he’s been reincarnated so differently. His brothers were supposed to be the only ones from Anu’s line that were reincarnated.”

“He had brothers?”

“Wow. You really don’t remember your family. Guess I’m special, then.”

**Dipper**

“A friend? Who are you, really? Show yourself!”

“My name is Aahmes. And I can’t show myself to you, at least not yet.”

“Why not?”

“You weren’t even supposed to be here, Dipper. Were you to come at the right time I would be able to show myself to you.”

“Where are we?”

**Mabel**

We started talking a lot more after that. Dylan was super cool, and I seriously regretted not hanging out with him more this summer. Well, at least I had a whole month left! Dylan didn’t attend school because he’s one of the immortal vampires and finished high school twenty years ago.

Speaking of which.. “So I’m a quarter vampire?” I asked. “Did  you know?”

Dylan shrugged. “I could sense something vampiric about you and your brother, but I wasn’t sure.  Now I know.”

I sighed. “Darn it. I was hoping to know more about  mom, it sounds like she was keeping secrets. I wonder if dad knew. Guess I’ll have to ask Amber about it later.”

“I don’t know if she’ll tell you. She didn’t seem to eager to do it then.”

“I’m sure I can get her to tell me!”

“What if she promised your mother she wouldn’t tell?” Dylan asked.

“How would she do that? We’ve never been to Gravity Falls before the funeral, so how would she even know I’d meet Amber?”

Dylan shrugged. “Who knows.”

**Bill**

We ended up listening to music while waiting for everyone. “Your taste in music hasn’t changed since That Time,” I noted. “I always thought it was weird how your taste in music didn’t match your personality. Still doesn’t.”

“Yours hasn’t changed either,” Hes grumbled.

“How much do you remember of That Time?” I asked.

“You mean those few years before our fight?” Hes asked. I nodded.

He shrugged. “Bits and pieces, but nothing big.”

“Oh.”

**Dipper**

“Not exactly sure what this place is. All I know is that I’ve been stuck here for a while.”

“Great. Well, since I’m here why don’t we get to know each other a bit. Any idea how long I’ll be here?”

“Who knows?”

**Mabel**

We arrived at the place at sunset. “Good, it shouldn’t take too long, then,” Dylan commented.

“What do you mean?”

“You can only pick the fruit after sunset, when the pods open,” he explained.

“Then we came at the perfect time,” I noted, barging through the gates as Dylan tried to shout a warning. But it was too late, as I’d already stepped inside.

At first, all was eerily quiet as Dylan joined me in the grove. “Dylan Ward,” a voice said. “It has been a while since a member of your family has been here.”  I realized the trees were  _ talking.  _ You’d think that with me living in Gravity Falls I’d be used to all the weirdness, but nope. Still creeped me out, especially when faces appeared on the trunks.

All the eyes of the trees turned to me. “And the scent of this one. It is familiar and yet not. Who was her sire?”

“Me,” Dylan lied, stepping in front of me.

The trees waved their branches in acknowledgement. “And why are you here, young ones?”

“One of our friends has encountered Nightblood toxin and we have come seeking the cure,” Dylan said.

“We see. Well, our fruit will not be given to you without payment.”

Dylan tensed. “And what do you want in return?” he asked. I could tell that he was angry but trying to hide it, having caused him to be that way several times before that.

“The blood of the female. She still smells human, and yet also like a vampire. And something… else. It is very intriguing, and smells delicious.” 

I stepped forward. “Okay.”

Dylan put a hand on my shoulder. “Wait. This might not be such a good idea.”

“Look, we need to save my brother and you said they had the antidote. I’m doing this.” I walked up to them. One of the trees had a particularly sharp branch, which they sliced my arm with. I let my blood drip into the pool that fed their roots, and then I passed out.

**3rd Person POV**

Dylan caught Mabel as she fell. “What did you do?!” he snarled at the trees.

“We wished to speak to you privately about this girl. She and her brother have an incredible destiny, but that is not what we wish to discuss.”

“What is it?” he asked.

“This girl’s heritage is a dangerous and volatile combination. It is balanced in her brother due to the nature of his soul, but hers could kill her. In addition, we know about your feelings for her.” 

“What feelings?” Dylan scoffed, trying to pass it off. 

They sighed. “We know what it is in your heart, Dylan. You admire this young woman greatly, and desire her, even more so now that you know about her lineage.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“In order for this girl to be safe, she will have to become one of the things she has descended from- a human, a furie, or a vampire. Were she to become a vampire you truly would be her sire and she would be unable to resist you.”

“I don’t want that!” Dylan shouted. “I want her feelings to be real, but I just don’t know how to act around her.”

“Which is why we would make her a vampire. It would make things easier on you.”

“I don’t want to make the choice for her.”

“So be it. But we will only give you until the end of the summer to discuss both things with the girl and for her to make her decision. Understand?”

Dylan nodded. One of the trees handed him the fruit they had come here for, and he left carrying Mabel in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa: Phew! And the July arc is over!
> 
> Alec: And I think we mentioned this earlier, but we are going to post a challenge at the end of each arc, the first to complete this challenge will get to chose a one/two-shot two be written by us! You can find the challenge and submit your answers [here](http://starfallaus.tumblr.com/post/149995796443/challenge)
> 
> Alyssa: Good luck!


	17. August 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of talks about crushes, and Hes tries to make a cake. It doesn't end well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa: OKAY GUYS. LAST CHAPTER GOT ONLY ONE COMMENT. ONE. WE ARE FUELED BY READER INPUT, SO IF YOU WANT MORE, FREAKING LEAVE COMMENTS!!!!! GAHHH!

**Dipper**

_ I opened my eyes and to a barren landscape. The sky was blood red, and there wasn’t any signs of life anywhere, void of colors beyond red and black and grey and brown. But, still, I had to get there somehow. “Hello? Can anyone hear me?” _

_ I continued to walk along the dreary plain. That’s when I heard voices coming from behind a rock formation.  _

_ “I won’t let you kill him!” _

_ Floating in what looked to be some form of alter-type area was the purple hexagram I’d seen almost a month ago. The being seemed to chuckle. “Like you can stop me. You’ve even got your powers and your body back, and you still can’t do anything!” _

_ She seemed to be talking to a yellow triangle wearing a black top hat. (I was starting to wonder what exactly this was. Did Mabel sneak Smile Dip into the food again?) The triangle was struggling against glowing blue chains that held him tightly in place. The star looked at the altar, where my unconscious body lied. _

_ “This boy is my key to getting out of this town and spreading my destruction all over the universe! When I am done, there will be  _ nothing  _ left. Nothing at all.” _

_ “Let him go!” The triangle’s form started to flicker. _

_ The star snickered. “Man, can’t even maintain your own form? How pathetic.” There was a slicing sound as my throat was slit. A pale white mist seemed to come from my body, and was absorbed by the star. The chains vanished from the triangle, the being taking on a more humanoid form (though still decidedly inhuman) and rushing over to me, ignoring the fact that the star had teleported high into the air. _

_ “NO! Pine Tree, no, don’t- don’t leave me!” the being begged. “I can’t lose you, not again.” He sobbed, clutching my lifeless body close. “Please. This isn’t what I wanted. You can’t die on me again, I won’t get you back this time. Please don’t leave me, Dipper. Please.” _

My eyes flew open. Now fully conscious I knew that this was, in fact, a vision of the future and not a Smile Dip-induced nightmare. Which was much worse. While this was merely a possible future, it was the most likely one. Which was in no way good. 

I went downstairs to talk to Hes. I needed to know what those beings were, first of all. And then I had to figure out what it all meant and how to stop it.

“Hey, Hes?”

“Yeah? What’s up?” he was downstairs, restocking the gift shop.

“What kind of creature takes on the form of polygons with stick figure limbs?”

“Oh. Those are demons,” he said simply.

“Really? So you and Bill look like that?” I asked. That just seemed… weird.

He nodded. “Yep. Most demons have at least two forms- their true form, and their celestial form. Their celestial form is some sort of shape, and is usually used in their summoning circle.”

“So what do you and Bill look like?”

“Well, I’m a teal and white crescent moon, and Bill’s a one-eyed triangle. He’s also tended to enjoy throwing in a top hat and a bow tie as of late. No idea why.”

So… Bill was in my vision. What did that mean?

************

I was working the cash register that day, and trying to figure out my vision in between customers. What I understood is that some sort of apocalypse was coming, probably started by that purple star. But, why? And why was I so important to it all?  And what did she mean, “got Bill’s form and powers back?” I knew his powers were sealed, but did that mean he couldn’t even assume his celestial form even in his own mind? Hes said he could take on whatever form he wanted in his Mindscape. Was Bill somehow trapped even more than he was letting on?

My thoughts were interrupted by Dylan walking into the Shack. He’d been hanging out with Mabel a whole lot yesterday so I automatically said, “Mabel isn’t here today.”

“I know,” Dylan responded, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the gift shop. “I was looking for her, not you.”

The fact that he dragged me into the completely empty “Employees Only” area made me a little bit nervous. Sure, he was a good friend, but he also got nourishment from blood. 

Once he was sure we were alone he looked at me and said, “I need your help with something.”

**Mabel**

“Just tell him how you feel about him,” I said. Bill and I were in the back of Amber’s shop, and he had been going on about his crush on Dipper (mainly his insecurities about it).

“But what if he doesn’t feel the same? What if he thinks I’m a freak for liking guys? What if he gets all weirded out and it’s super awkward? What if he-”

“JUST SHUT UP!” I shouted, unable to take it any more. “If it bothers you so badly, why not find out how he feels about things first and go from there. You can see how he feels about liking guys, try flirting with him, see how things go.” I already knew that Dipper was pan, and that flirting would make him blush and flustered, but Bill needed to find that out on his own.

“Okay. Wait, how do you flirt?”

I facepalmed.

**Hes**

“Okay, cookbook. Where is that cookbook?” Amber was hosting a party at her shop (it was the store’s 40th anniversary) and I was supposed to make a cake for it, along with providing drinks. Punch was easy enough to do, and while I  _ could  _ find a recipe online, I didn’t trust that my laptop would be safe in the kitchen while I was cooking. 

Which is why I was looking for a cookbook. Stan rarely ever cooked (and when he did, it was barely edible), and I had plenty of recipes memorized, so I had no idea where the damn thing was!

I eventually found one in Stan’s storage room. It was a very odd-looking cookbook, and had a Post-It with “BURN” scribbled on it, but that was probably due to Stan getting frustrated with the recipes. So I brought it into the kitchen and decided to use the recipe for Devil’s Food cake. 

**Dipper**

“Okaaay, what do you need my help with? Another supernatural incident happen at your house?”

The vampire shook his head. “I need help with Mabel.”

“What do you mean?”

“I… um, I like her.” He seemed a bit nervous, and was blushing. Dylan never did either. Ever.

“Who are you and what have you done with my friend?”

“I’m serious! I  _ like  _ Mabel Pines! As in, more than a friend like!”

“So, you have a crush on my sister?” He nodded furiously.

“But I’ve never had a crush on anyone before and never even know how to act around her most of the time. And I have to confess soon, or something bad’s going to happen.”

“Okay, I’ll help you with this. Wait, what’s going to happen if you don’t confess?”

**Mabel**

“You don’t know how to flirt?” I asked.

Bill shook his head “Never really needed to.”

I grinned. “Well, you’ve come to the right place! I’m an expert at all things romantic, and that includes dating!”

**Hes**

“Okay, all that’s left is to frost it.” I grinned. I didn’t bake very often (and Mabel really shouldn’t be allowed to, all that sugar and Smile Dip really isn’t safe for human- or nonhuman- consumption), and I was pretty proud of myself.

I turned my back for maybe five minutes to make the frosting. And then I heard something growl. I turned around slowly, discovering what had made the sound.

“Oh, shit.”

**Dipper**

“Well, you know how you and Mabel are part vampire, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, there are some really powerful beings that say they’re going to make her vampire side take over if I don’t confess to her, and give her the choice about what part of her she wants to be dominant.”

“Okay, so, what, you need help confessing or something?”

“More like, I need help wooing your sister, but  yeah.”

Suddenly we heard a loud crash, an unearthly growl, and Hes swearing in Latin. 

**Mabel**

“Why don’t we make another deal?” Bill suggested. “You teach me how to flirt, and I’ll help you get more Smile Dip.”

I was already planning to teach him, and the prospect of more Smile Dip just sweetened the deal. “Deal,” I said, shaking his flaming hand.

**Hes**

“So… Stan has a cookbook full of magical recipes?” Amber asked at the party. 

“Apparently, and it said that this cookbook’s recipe for Devil’s Food cake shouldn’t be made by anyone with demon blood.”

“Why not?”

“Well, it came to life as a giant, disfigured cake monster and tried to eat me, Dipper and Dylan. Then Soos came in and started eating the monstrosity and we all made it out in one piece, minus the cake,” I explained, shuddering at the memory.

She glanced warily at the cake she’d been eating. “So… what about the cake that made it to the party?”

I shrugged. “Dipper looked up a regular recipe for devil’s food on his phone and we used that one.”

“Oh.”

Speaking of Dipper… I glanced at the brunette, who was talking to Bill. Bill seemed to be saying something that was leaving Dipper pretty flustered, and made Mabel and Dylan laugh. It was nice to see him laughing, I could tell there was something wrong when he came downstairs that morning. My guess was that he had a vision that wasn’t very pleasant. But if it was important, I knew he’d tell me. Right? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec: So, this was about half filler. The whole cake thing was just cuz it wasn't supposed to be too serious.
> 
> Alyssa: Yep! About Dipper's dream though... NOPE! WE ARE TELLING YOU NOTHING!
> 
> Alec: Yeah. That was an important part, though. Pay attention to it. 
> 
> Alyssa: And I'm going to say this one more time: COMMENT ON OUR WORK, PEOPLE!


	18. August 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hes tries to undo the pixie's spell and Mabel investigates what's inside a locked box

**Dipper**

“Okay, so I think I finally figured out how to change you back, Dipper,” Hes said when he walked into the break room. I was there because there wasn’t any real work and Stan was on a tour so he wouldn’t notice I was gone (probably).

“Change me back?” I asked, confused.

“Cat features,” Hes said, gesturing at my tail

“Oh. Right.” I’d kinda forgotten they weren’t natural. Whoops.

Hes sighed and shook his head. “Shall we do this now?”

“Uhh, sure. Do we need anything special?”

“Besides a circle to contain the spell, not really.”

***********

Bill showed up a bit before we started the spell, and decided to watch.

I was the only one actually inside the circle. Hes had his hands on the circle and Bill was standing off to the side.

Hes closed his eyes, muttering something in an inhuman language. A bright light consumed the entire circle and when I could see again, everything was a lot bigger.

**Mabel**

It was a pretty quiet day in Amber’s shop, just me, Amber and Dylan were there. So Amber decided today would be a great day to do inventory. 

“I’ll take the front and you two take the back this time,” Amber said. 

“We’re on it!” I said, giving a mock salute before dragging Dylan into the storage room. 

We were maybe an hour in when we found a strange box. It was a large wooden chest, wrapped in chains held tight with a big, heavy lock. I started trying to get it open as soon as I saw it. 

“I think that’s probably locked up for a reason. Besides, what if Amber enchanted the lock to do something if you break it?”

“Nah, the lock’s pretty mundane,” I said. “There’s a spell to keep it from breaking easily, but nothing malevolent. And I can’t take inventory if I don’t know what’s inside!”

“Yes you can, just write down ‘big locked chest.’”

“Nahh, I think Amber wants me to write down what’s  _ inside  _ the box.”

**Bill**

When the light died down, a small brown kitten had replaced Pine Tree in the circle. 

“Umm, Hes… I think you messed up.”

He blinked, staring at the cat. “Crap.”

“I thought you were supposed to  _ undo  _ the spell, not progress it further!”

“It was!” he shot back. “I triple checked to make sure it would work!”

“Well looks like it didn’t work!” Pine Tree interrupted us by pawing my pant leg and mewing .

I looked down. “Right. Fix Pine Tree first, then we can yell at each other.”

Hes picked up Pine Tree. “It’s gonna take a bit to figure out what went wrong, but I think I have a spell so we can at least understand him for the time being.”

“You sure about that?”

“Positive.” He pressed his forehead to Pine Tree’s, whispering the spell.

“How do you feel, Pine Tree?” I asked, hoping Hes didn’t mess things up more. 

“Tiny and sleepy,” he said, yawning

“Kittens  _ do  _ sleep a lot,” Hes commented. He sighed. “I’ll work on fixing this, but you need to keep an eye on the gift shop for me.”

“There’s no one even in there!”

“You have to anyways. Stan would kill me if I left the shop unattended.”

“Even if it was to help his great nephew?”

“Yep.”

I sighed. “Fine. But you’ll owe me for this.”

**Mabel**

“Then let’s open this!”

Okay, crowbars didn’t work

Neither did bobby pins work at picking the lock.

I finally found a “key that unlocks any lock in the US” laying around (dunno why it was labeled the President’s key) and used  _ that  _ to unlock the lock.

The second the lock fell off, the chest started rattling and shaking.

“This might have been a bad idea,” I commented before the lid flew open and an explosion of darkness erupted from the chest. 

**Bill**

“This is soooo boooooring,” I whined, leaning back in my chair.

It had been almost an hour and absolutely no one had walked in. Hes was too busy trying to fix his mistake to talk to me, and Pine Tree had fallen asleep.

_ Hmm, maybe if I wake up Pine Tree… _

I stood up and walked over to Pine Tree. “Pine Tree! Pine Tree! Wake up Pine Tree!”

He opened one eye and looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m bored Pine Tree.”

He closed his eyes and shifted a bit. “Then find something to entertain yourself.”

“That’s why I’m waking you up. Entertain me!”

“No. I’m not some circus animal.”

“You’re not a circus animal, but you’re a very cute kitten.”

“I’m not cute!”

“Yes you are!”

“No. Go bother someone else.”

I grumbled and started poking Pine Tree. “But Hes is busy and there’s no one else here!”

He groaned, then got up and walked over to Hes, climbing onto his shoulder and falling asleep there instead.

**Mabel**

We both looked at each other.

“What just came out of the box?” 

“I have no idea.”

We had maybe three seconds before the shadows in the room started coming to life, becoming  small creatures that were all black. I couldn’t even tell where their eyes were, or if they even had any. They were maybe three feet high, horned creatures with sharp teeth and claws, all as dark as the rest of their body. They had barely formed by the time one of them lunged at me. I barely had time to dodge, knocking over a box of magical items. 

It was a fight for our lives after that. At some point I picked up a dagger I’d spotted that didn’t have any dangerous magical properties and used it to keep the creatures at bay. Probably would’ve done better if I’d had training, but at least it worked well enough.

But they kept coming. It was like they’d just respawn every time we killed one. I was wondering how long we’d last when the door to the room flew open.

**Hes**

“Okay, I could feel you glaring at me for the past two hours. What’s up?”

He was  _ still  _ glaring at me, actually. “Pine Tree like you better then he likes me.”

I blinked. “What?”

“He always wants to go to you, especially today. He likes you better.”

I shook my head. “I’m not going to get into that. Why does this even matter too much?”

“Because I want him to like  _ me.  _ I want him to focus on me and spend time with me.”

“You’re jealous because I spend more time with Dipper and apparently he likes me better?” I was amazed.

He nodded. 

“Do you have a crush on him or something?”

“N-no I don’t have a crush on him!” he denied, getting nervous

I just stared at him.

“Okay, maybe a little one. Mmmm, or a huge one.”

I laughed. “Alright, well I have no interest in dating the kid that’s like a little brother to me so he’s all yours, Bill.”

**Mabel**

The door flew open and Amber walked in. She took a moment to take in the scene of me and Dylan fighting. She shook her head, and muttered something under her breath. The creatures vanished instantly. 

“What on earth happened here you two?!”

“We opened a locked box.”

“Why on earth would you do that?!”

“To see what was inside so we could take inventory,” I explained.

“All you had to do was say you found a locked box. If I lock stuff, you’re not to open it until I say so!”

I nodded shakily

“What were those things?” Dylan asked.

“Something I hope you never have to deal with again.”

**Bill**

“Okay, I think I have it,”  Hes said. 

“Are you sure?”

“I triple checked so yes.”

Hes changed the circle a bit while I held Pine Tree, who’d gone to sleep again. (Kittens sleep  _ a lot,  _ at least he did.) When he was done I put him in the circle, Pine Tree waking up to watch Hes work the spell.

There was another flash of light and we had a fully human Pine Tree in the middle of the circle. I launched myself at him, hugging him and almost knocking him over. 

“Pine Tree! You’re back!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead~!  
> Haaaaa, sorry it's been so long. School and work and family and just... craziness. I can probably count the number of truly peaceful days I've had in the past three months on one hand.   
> Aaaanywho, here's the next chapter


	19. August 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hes, Bill and Dipper look for something to help Bill start to regain his powers while Mabel and Dylan look for answers about what was in Amber's store.

**Dipper**

“Pine Tree, look!”

I looked up to see Bill crashing into the room (tripping over a chest Hes moved his grimoires into and faceplanting into the floor. What on earth is it with demons and crashing into the floor?!), holding the journal.

“Bill, what on earth were you doing with that?”

“Wanted to see what kinda stuff was in here Pine Tree! And I found something cool!”

“What is it?” I asked, finally setting down my book.

Bill jumped up, dusting himself off. “Dream spores! Apparently they're used to induce lucid dreaming and since I'm a dream demon they should help me too!” He was very excited and… cute? Well, anyone acting like he was would be pretty cute I guess.

“That's awesome!” He showed me the journal entry. “Hmmm but that's a weird part of the forest, we should probably have Hes help us get there.”

**Mabel**

I groaned. “Amber  _ still  _ hasn’t told me anything about those creatures,” I muttered,  flopping onto my bed. 

“Does it bother you that much?” Dylan asked.

I nodded. “Yes! Those were probably either suuuuuper dangerous or important!”

“Why would it be unguarded in the back room of a curio shop then?” Dylan pointed out.

“Meeeeeh, fine, it’s probably not the most dangerous or important thing out there but I still wanna know what exactly was in that box.”

Dylan sat on the bed next to me. “Knowing you, you’ll probably go off and do something crazy and your brother would  _ kill me  _ if you got hurt, so why don’t we go for the safer option and check the library? It’s got tons of information on supernatural creatures.”

“Okay!”

**Dipper**

“You’re sure you know where we’re going?” I asked, trailing behind Hes. 

“Course he does! Hes’s lived in these woods for ages! Longer than humans have been here, that’s for sure,” Bill chirped next to me.

“How old  _ is  _ he?”

“Older than me, at least. He was fully grown when I was born.”

“And how long ago was that?”

“Human civilization wasn’t even a thought yet in this dimension,” Bill said quietly. “In other dimensions though, some already had very advanced societies. Though cruelty to people who don’t fit in is everywhere.”

Bill tended to get pretty sad (or angry, depending on the situation) whenever his past was brought up. I’d learned to stop bringing it up too much, though sometimes I got pretty curious. 

Bill actually did most of the talking. Hes was busy navigating and I was busy taking in everything. This was much deeper into the forest than I’d ever been, and the deeper we went the darker it got, until it almost could have been mistaken for night, prompting us all to summon lights for us to see. Actuallly- 

I looked up and saw a sky full of stars. But wait- it was morning when we left and I know we hadn’t been walking more than an hour…

Bill noticed my confusion. “Yeah we’re in a pretty strange part of the woods. Time doesn’t really exist here like it does in the rest of Gravity Falls. Here it’s midnight 24/7. Let’s some pretty neat creatures run around that can only exist in the dark, too.”

“Whoa.” There were in fact some very odd creatures. Many glowed, or had too many eyes or just looked downright strange- like a stag whose antlers were covered in eyes. Bill explained that sunlight caused dream spores to disintegrate, which is why we were in this part of the woods to find them.

**Mabel**

Dylan set down a huge stack of books on the table in front of me. I could barely see over the top of them. 

“There. Every book that has anything to do with shadow creatures.”

“That’s a lot of books.”

“There are a lot of different creatures out there.”

I nodded. “Yeah, true.” I picked a book off the top. “Let’s get started, then.”

**Dipper**

“Are you  _ sure  _ we’re not lost?”

“Of course we’re  not lost!” Hes huffed. “We’re-” he looked around. “Okay we might be a little bit lost. I know the area listed in the journal but not the exact location.” 

Bill snorted.

“And what might our valiant protector be looking for in this humble neck of the woods, hmm?” 

We all looked around wildly for the source of the voice, it was sweet and beautiful but at the same time ancient and a bit mischevious. 

“Up here you glow worms.”

Perched up in one of the tree branches was a nymph, but not one like I’d ever seen before. She had jet black hair and eyes that glowed softly, moth like wings in purple and black. The nymph glod down to land in front of us, chuckling. 

“We’re looking for dream spores,” Hes said politely. 

“Dream spores huh? One of your companions having sleeping problems?”   
“You could say that.”

She grinned. “They like to hide in a very specific spot. I could show you if you’d like.”

“If you would, please,” Hes admitted.

She led us through the woods, grinning and humming a strange tune. The song seemed to make Bill uncomfortable but he didn’t say anything about it. 

The dream spores were contained in giant white glowing bulbs. The bulbs themselves were translucent, the light coming from the spores. The place the nymph led us to was extremely secluded and overgrown, the only light in the area coming from the spores. Even the light of the moon and stars didn’t reach the place.

“Here we are!~” the  glow in her eyes shifted from white to a dark purple as she turned around to attack us. 

**Mabel**

It took a while, but I finally found an entry with the creatures we fought.

_ “Somnium Tenebris: entities created when attacked in the dreamscape by the demon Altalune. Their souls are held captive by her, leaving an empty, corrupted shell that exists only to destroy and can only be controlled by their mistress.” _

The rest of the excerpt talked about them being impossible to kill, just banish and speculation on where their souls were kept, along with theories on what might happen if the souls were freed. 

“Hey Dylan, I found something.”

He peeked over my shoulder at what I was reading. “Yeah, that’s them.”   
“Their creator is someone named Altalune? Who’s that?”

Everything went black.

**Dipper**

We barely managed to avoid getting exploded. 

“ _ You,”  _ Bill snarled. “I should’ve known it was you from that song.”

The nymph cackled. “And what could you do, hmm? Your power is still slowly slipping away from your grasp. Soon enough you’ll be like any other human.” She glanced at one of the blubs. “I’m guessing that’s why you want this, hmm?” She set the closest one on fire. “I suppose I’ll just have to get rid of you first.” A pulsating purple orb was launched at Bill, Hes managed to push him out of the way in time. 

“Who are you? What do you want with us?”

The nymph grinned at me, predatory and dangerous. “The dream child is in my way. And you, you, Mason Pines, are  _ mine,  _ just as I said before.” The fire started to spread as she leapt at Bill to attack him again

**Dylan**

Mabel collapsed, the book falling out of her hands.

“Mabel?! Mabel come on, wake up,” I shook her. No response.

“Shit,” I muttered, trying to wake her using other methods. Nothing was working.

“Mabel, please. Mabel, wake up. I… I-”

Her eyes finally fluttered open. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a shadow fleeing from our area, even though we were alone. I was too worried about Mabel to chase after it though, and just held her tightly. 

**Dipper**

I didn’t know how to fight, I didn’t know what to do while the nymph launched herself at Hes and Bill over and over, attacking them seemingly endlessly. That’s when I noticed a largish fallen branch next to me. It felt pretty sturdy and, not knowing what else to do I grabbed it and hit the nymph on the back of the head while she was turned away from me. 

She collapsed instantly, slumping to the ground. Hes sighs. “Her puppets are generally easy to knock out, as long as you can manage to get close enough to do that. Thanks Dipper.” He helped Bill stand. “Now let’s get what we came for and head home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, it's been ages since I last updated, heh?  
> Course it's been several months of weird illnesses, being hospitalized twice, moving cross country, getting an apartment with the lovely MichiruCipher, and being about to move yet again. But I'm not dead, yay!  
> [the nymph's song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7umg6ZrIEH8)  
> Hopefully I'll update soon again, though it shouldn't be as long as last time

**Author's Note:**

> Alec- so, yeah. This is kinda one of our biggest ideas, fic-wise. Umm, so Alyssa's kind of an artist and she's created a reference to show what Hes looks like
> 
> http://treasured-child.deviantart.com/art/Hesperon-Hes-Aster-610485633
> 
> Alyssa: This is going to be such a fun idea! I hope you guys stay along for the ride! And don't worry, we'll keep up with our other fics!


End file.
